
1 


il^^^^^^H 






Copyrigkls' 



COPi-RIGHT DEPOSIT. 



EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 
FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE 




GETTING together" 
HOISTING THE STARS AKD STRIPES AND UNION JACK FROM THE SAME 
FLAGSTAFF OVER THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON, APRIL 
1917. 



EXPLAINING THE 
BRITISHERS 

THE STORY OF ENGLAND'S MIGHTY 

EFFORT IN LIBERTY'S CAUSE, AS 

SEEN BY AN AMERICAN 

BY 
FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE 

AUTHOR OF "men AROUND THE KAISEE" 
AND "the assault" 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




NEW ^ar^ YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



■^ 






Copyright, iQiQ, 
By George H. Doran Company 



Printed in the United States of America 

•.Ay 



\ 

©CI.A5n350 

JAN 17 1919 



FOREWORD 

Our country has sent millions of her sons to 
jight in the International Army of Civilisation. 

Our object is to win a complete victory as soon 
as possible and return to our homes. 

We therefore wish our help to he of the max- 
imum efficiency. 

The better we know the Allies, the more efec- 
tive our co-operation will he. 

All of us know in a general way the splendid 
fortitude and glorious deeds of the soldiers and 
sailors of Great Britain, France, and Italy. But 
how much do we know of their tremendous losses 
in lives or of the labours and suffering of their 
civil populations?' 

This book was written by an American who 
lived in England before and throughout the war. 
His purpose is to explain exactly what sort of a 
chap the Britisher is and what the Army, Navy, 
and people of Great Britain and her Colonies have 
done in Freedom's cause. Mr. Wile shows how 
the Britishers bore the brunt of the onslaught 
of an enemy which had been preparing for this 
war for nearly half a century. 

Any American soldier, sailor, or civilian who 
takes the trouble to read these pages will find that 



vi FOREWORD 

both the men and women of the British nation 
have to their credit a truly wonderful record of 
courage and accomplishment. Nearly a million 
of their fighting men have been killed in battle, 
and twice as many wounded, but there was never 
any sign of weakening. 

I am sure that a clear understanding of the ex- 
tent of the Britishers' sacrifices, both on the firing- 
line and at home, will inspire all Americans to put 
forth their best efforts to bring this distressing war 
to a satisfactory end. 




Commanding U. S. Naval Forces 
Operating in European Waters. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

CHAPTER 

I England and America 9 

II "Playing THE Game" 19 

III The British Navy 29 

IV The British Army 43 

V The Home Army 55 

VI Ireland and the Colonies .... 69 

VII How the Britishers Are Governed . 84 

VIII The Bulldog Breed 99 

IX The Real Britisher 116 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Getting Together" Frontispiece ^ 

Hoisting the Stars and Stripes and the Union 
Jack from the same flagstaff, over the Houses 
of Parhament, London, April, 1917. 

PAGE 

General John J. Pershing 20 

Admiral Wm. S. Sims 34 

London's Mighty Welcome to the American Van- 
guard, Trafalgar Square, August 15, 1917 . 56 ^ 

King George and Queen Alexandra reviewing the 
Americans march past Buckingham Palace, 
May 25, 1918 56 

Major-General John Biddle 86 ^ 

Ambassador and Mrs. Page, with American 
Bluejackets, at "Eagle Hut," London, April 6, 
191 8, the first anniversary of the entry of the 
United States into the War lOO s,- 

"The Stuff to Give 'Em" (American Gunners at 
Chateau-Thierry) 100 



1% 



EXPLAINING THE 
BRITISHERS 

CHAPTER I 

ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

How many of you fellows, I wonder, landed on 
the shores of England with the same ideas about 
her that I had when I first came? Two things 
were uppermost in my thoughts — ^first, that we 
once fought her in order to win our independence, 
and, secondly, that every Englishman hated us as 
the Devil hates holy water. I arrived in England 
with a chip on my shoulder, and I expected to 
have it knocked off. With my primary-school 
United States history deep and patriotically In- 
grained in me, I felt sure that I had come to a 
country with which America was no longer at war 
but which was still our "enemy" all the same. 

Now I venture to think that each and every one 
of you who has already arrived on British soil has 
been here just long enough to realise that our boy- 
hood-schoolday notions about England are woe- 

9 



10 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

fully out of date. I do not mean that we should 
forsake George Washington and the Fourth of 
July, and all the glorious traditions that enshrine 
them in our hearts. They are immortally dear to 
us. I do not mean that we should forget about 
that King of England, George III., against whom 
the American Colonies rebelled, or Lord North, 
his Prime Minister, on whose misguided counsel 
he acted. I do not mean that we should erase 
from our memories the fundamental fact that the 
Americans arranged the Boston Tea Party in 
1773 because they objected to Taxation Without 
Representation. I do not mean that Bunker Hill 
and Brandywine, Ticonderoga and Valley Forge, 
Yorktown, Lafayette and Rochambeau, are names 
that American boys should no longer mention. All 
these things are precious to us, for they are the 
concrete upon which our skyscraper Republic is 
firmly imbedded. 

But the Declaration of Independence is a vener- 
able document. John Hancock, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, Thomas Jefferson and our other sainted na- 
tional heroes signed it 142 years ago. Five gen- 
erations of Americans have come and gone since 
1776, and as many generations of English men 
and women have been making history in the seven 
score years and two that have intervened. The 
England of to-day — the England in which you 
have arrived on the final stage of your trip to the 
battlefield — is no more the England of George 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 11 

III. and Lord North than our own United States 
Is the America of the eighteenth century. Any 
Enghshman who cherished about us in 191 8 the 
Tory notions of 1750-1780 would be just as ludi- 
crous a figure as an Englishman In satin knicker- 
bockers, powdered wig and a cocked hat. He 
would be a joke. He would not dare to show him- 
self In public. He would be laughed to scorn. 
The times have changed. 

I have never looked through an English pri- 
mary-school history book to see what English boys 
and girls are taught about the American War of 
Independence. I don't suppose they get a great 
deal of It — Indeed there Is far too little taught In 
England, even In the great Universities, about the 
United States and United States Institutions. The 
war ought to, and probably will, remedy that state 
of affairs. 

At any rate, one of the results of our comrade- 
shlp-In-arms with the Britishers In this war ought 
to be a new American school history of the War 
of Independence. Such a history, as I have al- 
ready suggested, need not and should not omit the 
vital fact that the Colonies rebelled In a just cause 
and won an Independence to which they were en- 
titled. But It ought also to teach that England's 
leading statesmen were on America's side; that 
George III. and his official advisers were acting 
against the views of large sections of the British 
people; that these views could not be enforced 



U EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

because only 200,000 Britishers out of a popula- 
tion of 8,000,000 had a vote; that several British 
generals resigned their commissions rather than 
fight against the American Colonists ; that George 
III. had to adopt the expedient of hiring 30,000 
German mercenaries (Hessians) to fight for him 
in America; that Pitt, Fox and Burke, the three 
outstanding political leaders of the day, all op- 
posed George III.'s obstinate policy toward the 
Americans, and that Pitt (later Lord Chatham) 
withdrew his own sons from the Regular Army in 
order that they might not have to fight against the 
Colonies. These are historical facts. As American 
schoolboys, you and I did not get them, except in 
rare Instances. That Is why, to a large extent, we 
were brought up and grew up on anti-British dope. 
I have mixed with, lived among and worked for 
Englishmen for twelve years. It is my privilege 
to know cooks' sons and Dukes' sons, as they say 
hereabouts, and even a Duke or two, and I have 
enjoyed friendly contact, without feeling the need 
of wearing smoked glasses, with Sirs and Lords of 
high degree. I am acquainted with all sorts and 
conditions of English folk, from commoners to 
nobles. I belong to their clubs, I eat at their 
tables, I am the recipient of their confidences, and 
they receive my own in a spirit of patience and 
generosity. On the evidence of my own observa- 
tions — and my journalistic occupation makes them 
intimate to a degree far beyond the opportunities 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 13 

enjoyed by the average American resident in the 
British Isles — I say without hesitation that no 
Englishman whose opinion is worth a tinker's cuss 
has anything to-day except boundless contempt for 
the policies which tore the American Colonies 
from the British crown a century and a half ago. 
He is ashamed of them. He pities the short- 
sightedness of the statesmen who carried them out 
to England's eternal disadvantage. He will tell 
you, as hundreds of Englishmen have told me, 
that a George III. who tried in this age and day 
to govern British Colonies as our Original Thir- 
teen were governed would wake up one fine morn- 
ing — as an Irishman might put it — and find him- 
self beheaded. That is what Englishmen of at 
least one era did with a King who, in their opinion, 
was not running his job properly. Some day, 
perhaps, wou will come to London on leave. In 
Whitehall, the famous street on which the great 
Government ofiices stand, you will see a grey old 
building, celebrated as the scene of the execution 
of Charles I. He was the monarch who played 
fast and loose with the liberties of the people and 
lost his head for it. 

The plain fact of the matter is that present-day 
Englishmen — ^the kind who are giving you the glad 
hand at this very hour, wherever you are — dis- 
avow the poHcy that "lost America to England," 
because they love Liberty just as much as we 
Americans do. And — this is something you may 



14 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

not fully comprehend — they have just as much Lib- 
erty as we have, in every respect. They are in the 
war because they want to retain their Liberty — as 
we do. England is a Republic with a King instead 
of a President. That is the difference between our 
respective forms of Government in a nutshell. 
The English have a hereditary instead of an 
elected Ruler. They respect and venerate their 
monarch just as we respect and venerate our Pres- 
idents. They stand at the salute when "God save 
the King" is sung or played because the King is 
the accepted guardian, protector and embodiment 
of English liberties. His crown — which he only 
wears, by the way, once or twice a year for some 
traditional ceremonial at Court or in Parliament 
— is not a symbol of despotic power like the crown 
that the Kaiser wears. It is the emblem of the 
majesty of British freedom, of which the reigning 
Sovereign is the figurehead. That is the long and 
short of "the King business" in England. When 
the occupant of the throne happens to be a regular 
fellow like King George — a real he-man, a good 
sportsman, Democratic to the core, a hard worker, 
and a lOO per cent, gentleman — "the King busi- 
ness" Is safe and sound. We prefer a President 
because, as the boy who had red hair said, we 
were born that way. But the liberty-loving Eng- 
lish are perfectly satisfied with their system of a 
President who is called a King. 

Get that, and you will understand why the Eng- 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 15 

llsh and ourselves are now fighting shoulder to 
shoulder to destroy Autocracy. We are fellow- 
Democrats. Both of us believe, as Abraham Lin- 
coln believed, that the only just Government is 
Government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people. England has been fighting for four 
years, and will go on fighting for forty more, if 
necessary, in order that Government of that sort 
shall not (in Lincoln's words at Gettysburg) 
"perish from the face of the earth." 

I guess we are all agreed that a friend in need 
is a friend indeed. England, in your lifetime and 
mine, proved herself to be precisely that kind of 
a friend of the United States. I refer to the 
Spanish-American War. Nearly all of you boys 
were babes in arms in 1898, or at least kids. So 
it may be new to many of you that England played 
an important part in our short and snappy conflict 
with the Spaniards. You all know who Admiral 
George Dewey was — ^the man whom President 
McKinley sent to the Philippine Islands with in- 
structions to destroy the Spanish Fleet. He made 
a clean job of it bright and early on the morning 
of May I, and, after sending Admiral Montojo's 
squadron to the bottom, Dewey established a 
blockade of Manila Bay. Besides the victorious 
American fleet, there were two other squadrons in 
Philippine waters — a British squadron, commanded 
by Admiral Chichester, and a German squadron, 
commanded by Admiral von Diederichs. The Brit- 



16 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

ish, with centuries of Naval traditions and experL 
ence, respected Admiral Dewey's blockade un' 
qualifiedly. The Germans, being people who butt 
in where angels fear to tread, were surly. They 
questioned Dewey's rights and set up some chesty 
pretensions of their own. Courteous protests by 
Dewey having failed to convince the Germans that 
he meant business when he told them that he was 
boss in the Bay and intended to remain so, the 
American Admiral trained his guns on the German 
Fleet. Then he notified Admiral von Diederichs 
that the guns might go off if the Germans con- 
tinued to be ugly. This made von Diederichs sit 
up. He sent his flag-lieutenant (von Hintze, who 
was German Minister of Foreign Affairs for a few 
minutes this year) to talk matters over with Dewey 
and the British Admiral. Dewey's reply was 
straight to the point. "Tell your Admiral," he 
said, "that if Germany wants war with the United 
States, she can have it in five minutes !" 

The interview which von Diederichs' flag-lieu- 
tenant had with Admiral Chichester, the British 
commander, was also very pointed. "I have come 
to you," said von Hintze, "to ask what the British 
squadron will do in case there is trouble between 
the Germans and the Americans." 

"Tell Admiral von Diederichs, with my compli- 
ments," replied Chichester, "that that Is a matter 
known only to Admiral Dewey and myself." 

It was not long after that, to Admiral von Die- 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA IT 

derichs' astonishment, that the British squad- 
ron manoeuvred Into a position that would have 
brought the German ships, had they dared to fire 
a shot, in conflict not only with the American 
squadron but with the British as well. Diederlchs 
gave Dewey no more trouble after that. 

That was the first, but not the last, great proof 
of friendship which England showed us during the 
Spanish-American War. The Dewey-Diederichs 
episode angered the Kaiser and his fellow War 
Lords in Germany beyond words. They had just 
launched their famous Naval programme, and 
nothing would have proved more useful for their 
purposes than a victory, bloodless or otherwise, 
over the "arrogant Yankees" in Manila Bay. The 
Kaiser swore to be revenged for the "insult" 
Dewey had put upon the German Admiral. He 
vowed that Spain by hook or by crook must be 
spared the ignominy of defeat by the United 
States. Germany decided to form a league of 
European .Governments, which should go to the 
American Government and say that they did not 
propose to let "the upstart of the Western World" 
crush an ancient and proud European nation. The 
German Ambassador at Washington, Baron von 
HoUeben, laid the Kaiser's scheme before the Brit- 
ish Ambassador, Sir Julian Pauncefote. It got no 
further. England put her big foot down, and once 
again Germany's plot to embarrass and humiliate 
Uncle Sam was kiboshed. The German Fleet was 



18 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

nearly as strong as ours In 1898, If not stronger, 
but the Kaiser knew that If he dared to Interfere In 
the settlement of our quarrel with Spain, Germany- 
would probably have to reckon with the British 
Navy, too. So he concluded not to burn his fingers. 

The Government archives at Washington con- 
tain plenty of evidence that England and the 
United States have marched shoulder to shoulder, 
as friends and mutual well-wishers, on numerous 
other occasions. But as fighting-men I think the 
Philippines episode, and what followed, will make 
the strongest appeal to you. For my own part, I 
have always thought that if John Bull had never 
done anything else to deserve our help when he 
was in a tight corner, his action at Manila in May, 
1898, was enough to entitle England to our undy- 
ing gratitude. 

In the opening chapter of this story it has merely 
been my aim to refresh your memories on modern 
Anglo-American history. And now I want to tell 
you, as best as I can, how mother Britain, hope- 
lessly unprepared, rolled up her sleeves In August, 
19 14 — slowly, as Is her way — but gritting her 
teeth more resolutely all the time, until to-day she 
stands forth a giantess in arms, her world-wide 
territories unlnvaded, her flag supreme on the high 
seas, her will unbroken, and all her hundreds of 
millions of people, white and black, united In one 
fierce, firm determination — ^to "carry on" till vic- 
tory, complete and final, is achieved. 



CHAPTER II 



'playing the game" 



Cricket Is England's national game. It is to 
her what baseball is to us. Every English kid 
grows up on cricket, just as you and I were raised 
on baseball. Though there are professional crick- 
eters, cricket has always been an essentially 
amateur, or "gentleman's," game. English boys 
have their great cricket heroes like C. B. Fry, just 
as we have our Ty Cobbs. To be the best bowler 
at your school, college or university in England, or 
to play for your County, is to win one of the finest 
honours you can possibly achieve. The distinction 
is more than likely to cling to you through life. It 
may be mentioned in "Who's Who," and perhaps 
help you to get elected to Parliament — provided, 
first and always, that you have "played the game." 

It is with that feature of cricket — "playing the 
game," which means playing it not only well but 
honourably, fairly and squarely all the time — that 
I want to deal, briefly. It means everything in 
England. It means so much that when a man 
doesn't deal honestly with his fellow-men, or stoops 
to anything low or underhanded, people say, "It 

19 



20 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

isn't cricket." He has not "played the game." 
Baseball became immensely popular in England 
this year, thanks to the presence of so many Amer- 
ican soldiers and sailors on British soil. But it will 
never take the place of cricket in Englishmen's 
affections. It can no more do that than the Amer- 
ican temperament can be grafted on to the English 
character. Cricket is English temperament and 
character in composite. To our way of thinking, 
of course, the game isn't in the same street with 
baseball, I never met a Yankee who could keep 
awake during a whole cricket game, which isn't so 
surprising, seeing that a real cricket match can last 
three whole days; and Englishmen have fallen 
asleep at a World's Championship match between 
the Giants and the White Sox. Cricket to us is 
slow, old-fashioned and unexciting. Baseball, in 
Englishmen's eyes, is noisy, nerve-wracking and 
upsetting. In the fact that cricket is deliberate 
and baseball spontaneous, we get, in my opinion, 
very close to the main difference In the English 
and American make-ups. 

I took an English pal to the Army and Navy 
baseball game in London on the Fourth of July, 
when the King and Queen and other Royal person- 
ages were present. I wanted to convert my friend 
from cricket to baseball. I wanted to show him 
what a sure-enough outdoor game was like — where 
victory goes to the team that thinks fastest, acts 
quickest, and is up on its toes and moving every 



F^i-'p"^';:^ 




GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING 



"PLAYING THE GAME" 21 

second of the time. It was a red-hot contest and 
as it progressed I rejoiced that my English friend 
was seeing such a splendid exhibition. The pitch- 
ing was superfine, a lot of men were fanned out, the 
base-running and fielding were almost perfect, and 
the Army nearly tied the score in the last inning — 
if they had, I would have been five plunks to the 
good! At any rate, it was a hair-raising finish. 
Although my English comrade had not yelled him- 
self hoarse, or joined with me in abusing the um- 
pire, or "stretched" at the seventh, I felt pretty 
sure he had been deeply impressed. I couldn't 
wait for him to volunteer his joy, so, while walking 
home, I tried to extort it. You have to pry enthu- 
siasm out of an Englishman with a jemmy. 

"Baseball is very exciting and requires skilful 
playing — I can see that," he said. "But I prefer 
cricket. It is better suited to the English nature. 
We could never learn to play baseball well because 
we are not made for it. It is too impulsive. It 
requires things to be done in too much of a hurry. 
There is no time to think them over. And then, 
you see, cricket means much more to us than just 
two or three hours' sport in the open air. It Is our 
way of building and training character. Welling- 
ton, who defeated Napoleon, said that Waterloo 
was won on the playing-fields of Eton — our famous 
public school. Do you know what Wellington 
meant by that? He meant that the tenacity, the 
sticking-to-it, the honourable fighting, the never- 



22 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

say-die spirit, that enabled the British Army at 
Waterloo to conquer, were the fruits of the lessons 
the lads of England learn on the cricket-field. They 
learn there to 'play the game,' calmly, coolly, un- 
excitedly. They are taught to play hardest when 
the luck seems to be running against them the most. 
'Play up, and play the game,' says one of our 
schoolboy recitations, as familiar to English youths 
as 'Paul Revere's Ride,' or 'The Village Black- 
smith,' or 'Barbara Frietchie' is to American boys." 

"No," continued my English pal, "we'll stick 
to cricket. It is slow and methodical and old- 
fashioned. The rules are very strict and never 
changed for the purpose of speeding up the game 
or making it more thrilling. We play it as our 
grandfathers played it, because it breeds in us the 
conservatism and caution which, we like to think, 
are the bedrock on which the British Empire has 
been built up. Cricket shows us how to 'play the 
game' — ^how to rejoice reasonably when we win, 
how to take defeat and punishment without whim- 
pering when we lose." 

I have told you all this not for the purpose of 
weaning you from baseball to cricket— ^it would be 
a national calamity if the United States Army and 
Navy went home and turned their back on baseball. 
I just want to make you understand, if I can, how 
cricket, as the traditional athletic pursuit of Young 
England, inspired the Britishers to "play the 
game" in August, 19 14, when the British Empire 



"PLAYING THE GAME" 23 

and Civilisation in general were confronted by the 
supreme crisis in human history. The German 
propaganda in the United States tried to make us 
believe that England declared war on Germany 
because John Bull was jealous of Germany's trade 
successes in the markets of the world. Even the 
Germans know now that that was a lie. They have 
heard from the Kaiser's own Ambassador in Lon- 
don, Prince Lichnowsky, that the British Govern- 
ment worked tooth and nail till the last minute to 
preserve peace. England proposed to settle the 
quarrel between Austria, Serbia and Russia by 
arbitration. But the Kaiser was all dressed up 
and had nowhere to go. So he went to war. 

England went to war because her name was 
signed to a treaty which guaranteed the neutrality 
of Belgium. When you keep to your treaty obliga- 
tions — when you look upon a solemn international 
agreement as a bond of honour and not as a "scrap 
of paper" — ^you play the game. It would not be 
"cricket" to do anything else. So Sir Edward Grey 
and Mr. Lloyd George and the other statesmen 
who were at the helm of British affairs In August, 
19 14, remembered the first maxim of life which 
cricket teaches to Englishmen — to stick to the 
rules, to fight when an honourable cause requires 
you to fight, and to keep on fighting, hard but 
cleanly, till you have the other fellow underneath 
or are knocked out yourself. England did not rush 
into war. She thought it over a long time — so 



24 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

long that right up to the eleventh hour there was 
still considerable doubt whether she would "go in." 
Cricket, you see, taught her statesmen the impor- 
tance of never going off half-cocked. But when 
they had weighed all the pros and cons of the 
situation — slowly, deliberately, thoroughly — Old 
England took the leap, for better or for worse. 
She decided to play the game. She determined to 
avenge Germany's violation of Belgium. It was 
cricket. 

The British Navy, of course, was ready. If it 
hadn't been, you and I might not be here to-day — 
you to read, or I to tell, the story. But England's 
decision to fight — to help France, to protect Bel- 
gium — meant that she had to go up against not 
only the Naval forces of Germany, but to jump in 
on land and face the mightiest Military Power that 
then existed anywhere in the world. England as a 
factor in a land war in which armies of millions 
were already engaged looked like a flea-bite. No 
wonder that the Kaiser spoke of "the contemptible 
little British army." Germany had anywhere from 
4,000,000 to 6,000,000 trained soldiers to call up- 
on. England had ready for fighting overseas 
about 4 per cent, of the number of troops actually 
mobilised in Germany. Yet on August 17, less 
than two weeks after England made up her mind to 
play the game, the "First Seven Divisions" had ar- 
rived in France, fully equipped with horses, guns, 
ammunition and all the other vast trappings of an 



"PLAYING THE GAME" 25 

Expeditionary Force. It was a record in transport 
which was never approached even in our own land 
of Hustle. A week later the British Army was in 
battle position before the German hordes at Mons, 
in Belgium, fiercely engaged in a struggle to stem 
the progress of overwhelmingly superior forces. 

Here and there in England to-day you will en- 
counter Tommies and officers who wear a rainbow- 
like strip of ribbon on their breasts. It is a simple 
combination of red, white and blue, fading one into 
another. Tommy Atkins calls it the "Go'-bH' me" 
ribbon — ^the Cockney for a swear-phrase which in 
plain English says, "God blind me." Every time 
I pass a man adorned with the Mons Ribbon — for 
that is what the "Go'-bli' me" strip is officially 
called — I feel like taking ofif my hat to him. For 
the British Expeditionary Force at Mons with- 
stood as ferocious an onslaught as any army in the 
annals of war ever had to face. The Kaiser had 
ordered "the British Contemptibles" to be wiped 
off the earth. Two full German Army Corps and 
two Cavalry Divisions were hurled against the 
troops of General Sir John French. The terrific 
battle grew in fury and bloodiness from minute to 
minute. Within twenty-four hours of taking the 
field, the British were locked in a grapple for life 
or death with the crack regiments of the most 
highly-trained army in Europe. The British did 
not yield. They died but did not surrender. They 
took frightful punishment, giving it, too, in such 



26 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

kind as their inferior strength permitted, but on 
the third day of the battle, so magnificent had been 
their resistance, the Germans threw in three more 
Army Corps, making five altogether, besides a re- 
serve corps. With these tremendous odds against 
them, sole salvation for the British lay in retreat, 
and, fighting tenaciously. General French decided 
to extricate what was left of his little Army. The 
fields around Mons were by this time richly 
drenched with the best blood of England, for it 
had cost the "Contemptibles" dearly to "play the 
game." It was due to nothing but the superhuman 
heroism of General French's remaining forces that 
they were not crushed by the masses of Germans 
hurled against them. It became known afterwards 
that the Kaiser's legions practically staked their 
all on wiping out the British Army. So the escape 
of its gallant remnant from Mons was a military 
feat of skill and glory. 

Thus before the great war for Liberty was a 
month old England lived up splendidly to its cen- 
tury-old tradition of playing the game. Without 
any obligation, save the greatest and most sacred 
of all — that of honour and of loyalty to friends in 
need — England not only flung all she had into the 
furnace of war, but prepared forthwith to fling 
more and more, and if need be all she had, into 
its consuming fires. Every man and every gun lost 
at Mons was replaced practically while the retreat 
was still in progress. 



"PLAYING THE GAME" 27 

In the knapsack of each soldier who now went 
forward to the fray was a message from Lord 
Kitchener, the new Minister of War, with instruc- 
tions that it should be kept in the active-service 
pay-book. The message was as follows : — 

''You are ordered abroad as a soldier of 
the King to help our French comrades against 
the invasion of a common enemy. You have 
to perform a task which will need your cour- 
age, your energy, your patience. Remember 
that the honour of the British Army depends 
on your individual conduct. 

"It will be your duty not only to set an 
example of discipline and- perfect steadiness 
under fire, hut also to maintain the most 
friendly relations with those whom you are 
helping in the struggle. The operations in 
which you are engaged will, for the most part, 
take place in a friendly country, and you can 
do your own country no better service than 
in showing yourself in France and Belgium 
in the true character of a British soldier. 

"Be invariably courteous, considerate, and 
kind. Never do anything likely to injure or 
destroy property, and always look upon loot- 
ing as a disgraceful act. You are sure to 
meet with a welcome and to be trusted. Your 
conduct must justify that welcome and that 
trust. 

"Your duty cannot be done unless your 
health is sound. So keep constantly on your 



28 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

guard against any excesses. In this new ex- 
perience you may find temptations in both 
mine and women. You must entirely resist 
both temptations, and, while treating all 
women with perfect courtesy, you should 
Ofvoid any intimacy. 

"Do your duty bravely, 

"Fear God, 

"Honour the King." 

It was in this spirit, with these orders, that the 
boys of England went forth in 19 14, as you are 
now going forth — as Crusaders for the Right, each 
remembering what he had learned on the cricket- 
field: that come victory, come defeat, men must 
always "play the game," giving hard, taking man- 
fully, and battling with clean hands, in order that 
when triumph comes it may be deserved. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BRITISH NAVY 

When Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign 
Secretary, declared in his memorable speech in 
the House of Commons on August 3, 19 14, that 
England had no intention of "running away from 
the obligations of honour^' toward Belgium and 
France, he added : 

"We are prepared. We are prepared for 
the consequences that may arise from the atti- 
tude we have adopted. We are ready to take 
our part." 

What Grey meant was that "Our sure shield," 
as the Britishers call their Navy, was ready. It's 
a way they've had in the Navy for 900 years, for 
since William the Conqueror came from Nor- 
mandy in 1066, British soil has never been trodden 
by an invader. The geographical date which you 
and I, as American schoolboys, best remembered 
was 1492, when Christopher Columbus hiked 
across the Atlantic to an unimagined destination 
and made the most important discovery in the 

29 



30 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

world's history. The date that every British 
schoolboy knows by heart is 1066. It is well that 
he does, for it marks the historical fact that for 
nearly nine centuries this little bunch of islands in 
the North Sea — whose total area of 121,000 odd 
square miles is smaller than that of our State of 
New Mexico — has not only been preserved from 
the ignominy and horrors of invasion, but has be- 
come the centre of a Commonwealth of great Na- 
tions. On its vast territories in two hemispheres 
the sun never sets. Its 13,150,000 square miles 
girdle the globe and 450,000,000 souls acknowl- 
edge the Democratic sovereignty of the British 
Crown. Millions of them have been killed and 
maimed in the defence of their gigantic realm dur- 
ing the past four years of bloodshed and tears. 
But not one solitary inch of it has ever been soiled 
by German invasion. Do you know the reason 
why? The answer is, the British Navy. 

I have set myself the task of sketching in a short 
chapter a subject to which some day an entire ency- 
clopaedia will be devoted — the story of the British 
Navy since 19 14. But we Yanks have a gift for 
grasping the essentials of a thing if Its outstand- 
ing features are put before us. That is all I intend 
to try. Do you realise, for example, that nearly 
two million American troops have been safely 
landed "Over There" m^/w/)' because Great Britain 
commands the seas? 

Up to October, 19 18, 1,766,160 United States 



THE BRITISH NAVY 31 

soldiers crossed the ocean, bound for France. 
During the summer and autumn of this year they 
came at the average rate of 300,000 a month, or 
10,000 a day. With the exception of the 291 lives 
we lost when the Germans torpedoed the Tuscania, 
that gigantic feat of transport, like which there 
has been nothing in history, was accomplished as 
serenely as if those footpads of the sea, U-boats, 
had never been invented. More than half of our 
troops have been transported In vessels of the Brit- 
ish Mercantile Marine, but sixty per cent, of the 
total number were escorted across the Atlantic by 
the United States Navy. I know with what joy 
and pride you have seen the Stars and Stripes 
flapping from our own warships which have con- 
voyed you to Europe, or through the danger zone 
around the British Isles. I know the sense of 
security their proximity inspired in you. Yet even 
the United States Navy could not have played its 
great part if the British Fleet had not cinched its 
command of the sea at the outset of the war and 
held it unchallenged from that hour to this. Ad- 
miral Sims and the United States naval forces now 
operating in European waters — an Armada of 
more than 250 vessels and 45,000 officers and men 
! — ^would have had urgent business nearer home. 
You and I and General Pershing's army are safe 
and sound in Europe to-day because Britannia still 
"rules the waves." Only once during the entire war 
— at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 19 16 — ^has 



82 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

the Kaiser's Fleet made a serious attempt to break 
out of the iron ring which the British Navy so 
relentlessly keeps drawn around the German 
coasts. The Germans object on that occasion — 
the "enterprise," as they described it, on which 
they set out — was to contest and demolish British 
supremacy at sea. If the Germans had accom- 
plished their purpose, the war would have come 
to a sudden and disastrous end for Liberty's cause. 
There would have been no occasion for America to 
"come in." There would have been nothing to 
"come in" for. We should have had to face single- 
handed and alone a Europe of which Germany was 
the indisputable master. But her "enterprise" was 
wrecked. Admiral Beatty gave the German Fleet, 
though at cruelly heavy cost to his own in ships 
and men, such a frightful mauling that the Ger- 
mans have never once since then dared to show 
their nose in any way that would enable the British 
to take a second crack at them. Now and then 
their destroyers have dashed into the North Sea 
on raids, always turning tail as soon as danger 
was scented. But their so-called High Seas Fleet 
has not looked for a stand-up fight for the last 
two years. Whenever the Germans are ready to 
repeat their "enterprise," they will find Beatty 
(and Sims) ready, too. To date they have 
evinced no taste for another dose of the medicine 
they got at Jutland. 

Every once in a while I hear Britishers asking, 



THE BRITISH NAVY 33 

"What is the Navy doing?" Americans frequently 
ask the same thoughtless question. People know 
what the British Army is doing because its heroic 
deeds are recorded in the open, day by day, by 
men who are given that special task. The lime- 
light is on the Army all the time. But the Navy 
has to work in silence and out of sight. Only on 
those rare occasions when German men-of-war 
appear on the surface of the sea, are we reminded 
that the British Navy is on the job. Yet it is on 
the job day and night, in sunshine and storm, sum- 
mer and winter, always and everywhere. Lord 
Nelson, England's immortal sailor, whose one- 
armed effigy stands eternal sentinel on the tall 
column which bears his name in London's Trafal- 
gar Square, said that in Naval warfare "Time Is 
everything; five minutes make the difference be- 
tween a victory and a defeat." So while the 
European storm-clouds were gathering, on July 
29, 19 14, the British Navy took time by the fore- 
lock, moved silently from its moorings on the 
West coast and assembled at strategic anchorages 
in the East and North. Henceforward the Navy 
became known as "The Grand Fleet," an unexam- 
pled organisation of fighting strength; and from 
that moment every possibility of Germany's win- 
ning the war vanished. She had lost her one 
conceivable chance of securing the command of the 
sea. It is our own celebrated naval expert. Ad- 
miral Mahan, you know, who has shown that Sea 



m EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Power is the decisive factor in war. When 
Britain, without firing a shot, took action that 
assured Allied supremacy at sea, Germany's hope 
of enslaving civilisation and imposing upon it the 
rule of Brute Force was shattered and wrecked. 
What has the British Navy done in the four 
years that have intervened? 

To begin with, first and foremost, it has effectually 
baffled the hopes and plans of Germany to win the war 
with U-boats. 

Let me say right here that the Britishers are 
the first to acknowledge that the American Navy 
has proved itself a friend in need, and a very 
eflScient one. It has had an important hand in 
smashing up the U-boat campaign. When Ad- 
miral Sims and our first destroyer flotilla came 
to England in the Spring of 19 17, the submarine 
war was in full blast. More than 1,000,000 
tons of Allied shipping were sunk in April of that 
year. Well one thing is dead sure — ^the sinkings 
"curve" has been bending even more markedly in 
the wrong direction for Germany since American 
naval forces have co-operated in fighting the sub- 
marine. Some day we'll know just how many 
U-boats that never got back home had Sims's 
chasers and depth-charges and mine-barrage to 
thank for their fate. JVe shall be proud of the 
figures and of the deeds of heroism and skill 
which they represent. Submarines have contin- 




ADMIRAL WM. S. SIMS 



THE BRITISH NAVY 35 

ued to cause enormous damage to British and Al- 
lied shipping. They are not yet killed off, but they 
have failed in their main object, which was to 
starve England, destroy British sea power, and 
keep American troops from reaching France. As 
the British Prime Minister puts it, ^'the U-boat 
has ceased to be a peril and is now only a nui- 
sance." 

In addition to defeating the submarine cam- 
paign, the British Navy has : 

Blockaded Germany and bottled up the German Navy. 

Driven German commerce from the sea. 

Preserved the British Empire from invasion. 

Brought Germany to the verge of starvation. 

Enabled the British Empire to wage war in ten dif- 
ferent parts of the world. 

Kept the high seas open for the legitimate service of 
mankind. 

Made ultimate defeat of Germany absolutely certain, 
no matter how long delayed. 

These are the facts about the British Navy. 
Now let me give you a few figures. "Figures 
talk," we Americans say. None ever talked more 
eloquently than these. The British Navy has : 



Increased its total tonnage from 2,500,000 to 8,000,- 

000. 
Patrolled incessantly the 140,000 square nautical miles 

of the North Sea. 
Steamed in one month alone (June, 191 8) 8,000,000 

miles. 



36 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Sunk, destroyed or captured more than 150 German 
submarines. 

Raised its personnel from 145,000 to 450,000. 

Enabled the safe transport of 20,000,000 men, 
2,000,000 horses and mules, 500,000 vehicles, 
25,000,000 tons of war munitions and stores to 
British fronts throughout the world, 51,000,000 
tons of oil and fuel, and 130,000,000 tons of 
food and other material. 

Armed and maintained 3,500 auxiliary patrol boats, as 
against less than 20 when war began. 

Enabled food for the 46,000,000 inhabitants of Great 
Britain and Ireland to be brought from oversea, 
despite the furious German U-boat campaign 
whose principal object was to "choke" them into 
submission. 

Kept Britain's 8,000,000 odd soldiers and sailors well 
fed and well armed, no matter how distant the 
field in which they were fighting. 

Made possible the uninterrupted supply of munitions, 
food and coal needed by the armies, navies, and 
75,000,000 inhabitants of France and Italy, 

This is what the British Navy has done. Think 
over it carefully, and you will rightly come to the 
conclusion that but for the British Fleet the war 
might have been over and won by Germany 
months, even years, ago. Truly the Prime Min- 
ister, Lloyd George, has said: '^Unless the Allies 
had been completely triumphant at the outset of 
the war at sea, no efforts on land would have saved 
them. The British Fleet is mainly responsible for 
that complete triumph." 

The symbol of the British Navy is a bulldog. It 
has fought like a bulldog every time it had a 



THE BRITISH NAVY 37 

chance to show its teeth. I would need a whole 
chapter of this booklet merely to catalogue the 
names of the British men and boys of "the bulldog 
breed" who have won heroes' laurels in the long 
and grim struggle at sea. The fights put up by 
destroyer crews, in desperate melees with German 
submarines and torpedo-boats, will supply mate- 
rial some day for thrilling and glorious tales. 
Whether opportunity comes to him to distinguish 
himself or not, every mother's son in the British 
Navy has perpetually in his mind's eye the signal 
that Nelson flew at the battle of Trafalgar in 
1805 : "England expects this day that every man 
will do his duty." Admiral Hood and the gallant 
6,000 or 7,000 officers and men who went down 
with their ships in the Battle of Jutland did their 
duty. "Jack" Cornwell, a ship's boy, who lost his 
life in that same glorious scrap, sticking to his post 
to the last second, showed the stuff that British 
sailor-lads are made of. Nineteen-year-old mid- 
shipman Donald Gyles, of the destroyer Broke, 
who single-handed drove off six burly Germans 
who attempted to board his ship, was a chip of the 
old block. Captain Fryatt, of the North Sea mer- 
cantile service, whom the Germans captured, tor- 
tured and murdered, will be for all time a token of 
the bravery that inspires the sea-dogs of the Brit- 
ish race. The thousands of fishermen of Britain 
who are sweeping mines throughout the vast 
stretch of sea from Shetland to Greenland, from 



S8 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Greenland to Iceland, from Iceland to the coast of 
Norway — "the most savage waters in the world, 
always angry, resenting the intrusion of Man by 
every device known to Nature" — do their duty, 
unseen, unsung, unknown. The brawny sailors, 
thanks to whose competent care and indifference to 
danger so many of you were brought in safety to 
this side of the world — the tars who man the pas- 
senger and food ships, the munition-carrying 
freighters, the huge troop-transports — these, too, 
as none knows better than yourselves, are doing 
their duty. 

The U-boat campaign is aimed principally, as 
you know, at the British Mercantile Marine. 
Among that splendid service the German pirates 
have claimed many victims. When I recall the 
names of the Lusitania, and the Sussex, and the 
Arabic, and all the other vessels which have been 
torpedoed, you will know what I mean when I re- 
fer to the terrors which the British merchant serv- 
ice has so bravely faced. But the Germans made 
another of their bad guesses about British charac- 
ter when they thought that their murderous torpe- 
does would scare the British sailor from the sea. 
It has had only one effect on that bluff and hardy 
mariner. It has made him hate the word German 
with a fury that the authors of U-boat warfare 
will rue for the rest of their damnable lives. I 
should not like to be a member of the crew of the 
first German ship that pokes its nose into a British 



THE BRITISH NAVY S9 

harbour after the war. Some welcome Is In pickle 
for that bunch, believe me. 

When danger calls, the British Navy Is always 
there. In April, 191 8, It was decided to sink some 
old ships, partly laden with concrete, in order to 
seal up the Germans' pi-lnclpal U-boat nests, the 
Belgian harbours of Zeebrugge and Ostend. It 
was a certain chance for glory — and death, and 
everybody realised that the men chosen to carry 
out the expedition had a through ticket to Davy 
Jones's locker. Yet three times as many British 
sailors volunteered for the job as were needed. 
The Hobson tradition, established by American 
sailors In Santiago harbour In 1898, prevails 
throughout the British sea service. Though U- 
boats make life at sea as dangerous as the front- 
line trenches, the Mercantile Marine has more 
boys than it can use for eighteen months! So 
much for the effect of submarines on Young Brit- 
ain's nerve. 

And then there Is the aviation branch, the sleep- 
less eye, of the Grand Fleet. German aircraft, 
both Zeppelins and aeroplanes, have shown truly 
enough that England "is no longer an island." 
But the Impunity with which German sky pirates 
used to visit and harass these shores Is a thing of 
the past. They cannot, of course, be kept away 
altogether. Yet on the occasion of their last at- 
tempt to murder sleeping women and babes on 



40 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

British soil — it was in August of this year — ^the 
Germans discovered to their cost and chagrin that 
the British Navy has a punch in the air as well as 
on the sea. A Zeppelin squadron, commanded by 
the enemy's most skilful airship pilot, Captain 
Strasser, who had raided England often before, 
was driven from the East coast when it tried to 
approach and sent scurrying back across the 
North Sea battered and burning. The squadron's 
flagship, with Strasser and his crew, was pursued 
40 miles out to sea, then attacked at close-range by 
airmen of the Grand Fleet's air force, and finally 
sent crashing into the sea, a flaming wreck. It 
was a Jutland in the sky. Another German "en- 
terprise" had been nipped in the bud. 

The German propaganda has dinned incessantly 
into the world's ears that the Kaiser is fighting to 
secure and assure "the freedom of the seas." The 
Germans try to excuse the tyranny of Militarism 
and its menace to Civilisation by shrieking that 
"Prussian Militarism" is no worse than "British 
Navalism." It has only been since 19 14 that the 
Germans have discovered that the seas are not 
"free." Prior to then they were as "free" to Ger- 
man ships and as open to their peaceful activities 
as they were to the ships of the rest of the world. 
The leviathans of Hamburg and Bremen entered 
the ports of Liverpool, Dover, Plymouth and 
Southampton, Cape Town and Sydney, Montreal 



THE BRITISH NAVY 41 

and Vancouver, Bombay, Singapore, and King- 
ston — ^wherever the Union Jack flew — as "freely" 
as British ships themselves. German shipping, 
indeed, grew fat and prosperous because of the 
complete freedom of the seas. 

It was Admiral Mahan, the American whom I 
have already quoted, who pointed out that "con- 
ceptions of representative government, law and 
liberty prevail in North America from the Arctic 
Circle to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, because the command of the sea at the 
decisive era belonged to Great Britain." If it had 
not. Napoleon's sway might have been established 
over what is now Democratic North and South 
America ; and if the same command of the sea did 
not belong to the same Great Britain at this hour, 
that Imitation Napoleon, that would-be but now 
sorely-chastened world-conqueror, William II. of 
Potsdam, would even now be stretching his blood- 
smeared tentacles across the hemisphere which 
the Monroe Doctrine stakes out as American for 
all time. 

"I shall stand no nonsense from America after 
the war," said the Kaiser to Mr. Gerard at Berlin. 

Which means, if It means anything, that the 
guns of the Grand Fleet, the bulldogs which bark 
when Beatty gives the word, have stood during 
the past four years not only between German ag- 
gression and the British Isles, but between that 



42 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

hideous tyranny and the security of our own be- 
loved United States. 

That is something else that the British Navy 
has done. 



CHAPTER IVj 

THE BRITISH ARMY 

When the Britishers declared war on Germany 
In August, 19 14, their standing army — ^the troops 
they had ready to send abroad as an Expedition- 
ary Force — numbered roundly about 160,000. It 
was a small army, measured by modern stand- 
ards, but as the British barrack-yard ditty puts it, 
"A Little British Army Goes a Dam Long Way." 

Meantime more than "J, 500,000 men have been enrolled. 
Of that mighty total there have been lost in killed alone 
m.ore than five times the number of the original Expedi- 
tionary Force, or 8oo,ooo. Some estimates place the total 
of killed even higher and assert that goo,000 Britishers 
have "gone West." 

I can almost hear you gasp when you read these 
figures; and well you may, for there is not one 
American out of a hundred who realises how lav- 
ishly British blood has been poured out in the com- 
mon cause. What Americans have been told in- 
cessantly during the past four years is that Eng- 
land was prepared to fight "to the last French- 
man." As soon as Uncle Sam waded into the 
fray, the German propaganda varied its deceitful 

43 



44 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

tune and said that England would fight "to the 
last American." 

Sometimes the German hot-air merchants put it 
this way: "England is playing safe. She always 
does. It's her game to let the other fellows get 
killed and save her own skin." A lot of us believed 
these tales. Some Americans believe them yet. 

What are the facts? British casualties in officers and 
men have been as follows: — 

August, 1914, to the end of 1915 550,000 

In the year 1916 650,000 

In the year 191 7 800,000 

In six months of 19 18 (estimated) 500,000 



2,500,000 



In Other words, far from "playing safe," the 
Britishers' casualties have amounted during the 
first four years of the war to roundly one-third of 
their entire army. 

America is properly proud of the great army she has 
despatched to France. By July 4, 191 8, it was a million 
in round numbers. But Britain had by then already 
LOST nearly a million in dead. I have not exaggerated 
these figures. They are not official, but have been com- 
puted by competent authorities. We know some of the 
details. During one month in France in 191 7 the Brit- 
ishers had 27,000 men KILLED. In the first twelve 
months of the war they had 6,660 officers and 95,000 men 
KILLED. During the month of April this year, as the 
result of the great battles which began on March 21, 



THE BRITISH ARMY 45 

igi8, they had more than 10,000 casualties among officers 
alone. 

In all candour, it is not our fault that we be- 
lieved for so long that the Britishers were not "do- 
ing their bit." It was their fault. They didn't tell 
us. They were themselves aware that they were 
doing their full duty, but they didn't think it worth 
while to say anything about it. For months and 
months after the war began the Britishers fought 
it in the dark, as far as the outside world was con- 
cerned. The Britishers are long on self-deprecia- 
tion. When I lived in Berlin an English-owned 
Luna Park Company had a red-blooded American 
advertising-man. He considered that it was his 
duty to make the Park known far and wide by 
every means available. One day he rushed into 
the manager's office, bubbling with enthusiasm, and 
announced that after weeks of effort he had se- 
cured permission to put up an electric flash sign 50 
feet high and 150 feet across in Potsdamer-Platz 
— a district like 42nd and Broadway. The Amer- 
ican expected his English manager to explode with 
joy. He did nothing of the sort. He lit a fresh 
cigarette, thought for a minute or two, and then 
said: "But don't you think a sign of that kind 
will be a bit conspicuous?" 

Now, that is exactly the British point of view 
where their own deeds and virtues are concerned. 
They do not believe in making them conspicuous. 



46 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

They expect people to take them for granted. So 
it has been with their war achievements. Though 
the little British Army that fought at Mons won 
glory enough to last the nation for all time, little 
more was said about it than if Mons had been a 
sham battle on Salisbury Plain. Britishers from 
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, 
Newfoundland, from all the Dominions oversea, 
were pouring across the seven seas by the shipload 
to fight for King, Liberty, and Motherland. From 
the great Empire of India native troops led by ra- 
jahs rushed to arms and to the strange and far-off 
battlefields of France because the issues at stake 
meant as much for Calcutta, Bombay, or Delhi as 
they did for London, Liverpool, Toronto, Mel- 
bourne, or Capetown. From the cities, towns and 
hamlets of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ire- 
land the Britishers who Inhabited their own Isles 
flocked to the colours In myriads. But the Brit- 
ishers didn't advertise this glorious news. 

Meantime, while "Kitchener's Army" of volun- 
teers was being hurriedly recruited and trained, the 
British Expeditionary Force In France and Bel- 
gium was fighting for Its very life. Not only was 
it handicapped by inferior numbers, but it was 
compelled to face the crack divisions of the Kai- 
ser's Army so short of guns and shells that it will 
for ever remain a miracle that it was not wiped 
out of existence in the first ninety days of the war. 



THE BRITISH ARMY 47 

It was well supplied with only one thing — unbreak- 
able courage. In October around Ypres (in Bel- 
gium) the British Army, still hopelessly outnum- 
bered, outgunned and outshelled, was engaged in 
as ferocious a struggle with the Germans as the 
history of war records. The Germans were mak- 
ing their first desperate bid for Calais and the 
coast of the English Channel, in the hope of at- 
tacking by land, sea and air their "grimmest and 
most stubborn foe — England." Ypres was pound- 
ed into a shell. The countryside for miles in every 
direction was fertilised red by the blood of Brit- 
ish soldiers, who fell in thousands. But Ypres did 
not fall. Above Its shattered fragments the Union 
Jack still flies. The road to Calais remains 
barred. Again and again the Germans have tried 
to gain it, but never so fiercely or at such terrible 
cost to the defenders as in those soul-trying days 
of October and November, 19 14. 

How many Americans know the story of Mons 
and Ypres? In battle glory they reduce to Insig- 
nificance anything that happened at Waterloo. Yet 
the Britishers did not shout about them. It was 
not their way. They had helped to save Civilisa- 
tion — ^that was all. But nobody In England 
thought it Important enough to bluster about for 
the benefit of foreign countries. Nobody saw any 
use In letting the outside world know the glorious 
news that from every nook and corner of the Em- 



48 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

pire the British clans were gathering. Nobody 
considered It worth his while to make known the 
fact that the British Lion was rousing himself 
slowly, but determinedly, for a fight to the finish. 
Nobody found it advisable to let people know 
that the British Fleet had already won the war at 
sea. Nobody said one solitary word about any of 
these things. To a large extent the British Cen- 
sor wouldn't allow anything to be said. But to a 
still larger extent nothing was said because the 
British, as Kipling remarked of Lord Roberts, 
"don't advertise." I visited the United States in 
February and March, 1915. The war had been 
on for nearly eight months. The British casualty 
lists were already enormous. John Bull was in It 
up to his neck — In blood and tears — ^but not grum- 
bling. What was it Americans asked me when I 
got home ? They wanted to know "When is Eng- 
land going to do something?" It is the Britisher's 
passion for self-depreciation that caused us to 
think they were asleep at the switch. 

Now I am going to tell you, in the eloquent 
language of figures, just what the Britishers have 
done In the way of raising an army. 

They began the war with an Expeditionary Force, as 
I have already explained, of 160,000. By the end of 
19 1 7, after three and a quarter years, the British Army 
had grown to almost fifty times that size, or 7,500,000. 
The Germans tried to make the world believe that 
England was fighting not only "to the last Frenchman" 
but "to the last Colonial." The figures show up this 



THE BRITISH ARMY 49 

libel, too, in its true colours. Out of the 7,500,000 men 
provided by the Empire up to the end of 19 17, 5,600,000 
or 74,7 per cent. — about three-quarters — came from Eng- 
land, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The proportions 
were as follows: 

Per Cent, 
of Total. 

England 4,530,000 60.4 

Scotland 620,000 8.3 

Wales 280,000 3.7 

Ireland 170,000 2.3 

Australia 



900,000 12.0 



New Zealand 
Canada 
Newfoundland 
South Africa 
India and other Over- 
sea dominions 1,000,000 13.3 



Total 7,500,000. loo.o 

That is to say, the British Isles themselves — 
this little country that Texas could swallow up 
twice over and whose population isn't half as large 
as that of the United States — have raised even a 
bigger army than the 5,000,000-men establish- 
ment planned by us Americans ourselves. By July, 
19 1 8, Great Britain had raised more than 8,000,- 
000 men for all the purposes of war. Reviewing 
the Britishers' achievement, their Prime Minister 
truly said that if the United States of America 
were to call to the Colours the same number In 
proportion to population it would mean very near- 
ly 15,000,000 men. 



60 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Before I leave the statistical side of the British 
Army, I want to nail another German campaign 
lie. Since the war began the world has been fa- 
miliar with three kinds of fakes — plain lies, 
damned lies, and German propaganda. One of 
the propaganda lies that the Swindle Department 
of the Kaiser's Government loves to keep in circu- 
lation Is that the Britishers systematically spare 
the hides of English soldiers and let the "Coloni- 
als" (Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders 
and other Dominion troops) do the dirty work 
and get killed. Once again there are figures which 
show at a glance what the facts are. Study this 
little table: — 

Percentage of Population of British Empire and Per- 
centage of Troops supplied by Countries named: 

Population. Troops Raised. Casualties. 
Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. 

England 62 70 ] 

Scotland 8 9 I" 86 

Ireland 7 6 J 

Overseas 23 16 14 

(This table does not include India.) 

You see that England, Scotland and Ireland 
contributed 85 per cent, of the troops raised, and 
suffered a fraction more than a corresponding 
quota of the losses. The Colonies furnished 16 
per cent, of the men, and suffered 2 per cent, less 
of the casualties. Australian casualties to mid- 
summer, 19 1 8, worked out at about 7^4 P^r cent. 



THE BRITISH ARMY 51 

of the total British losses ; Canada's casualties, at 
about 6% per cent. The proportion of British 
casualties to Colonial casualties during the last 
half of 191 7 per Division was 7 to 6. 

By the time this booklet reaches the hands of 
the men for whose information it was originally 
written — the American soldiers and sailors bound 
for or already in Europe — many of them will have 
made the acquaintance, face to face, of British 
soldiers and sailors. Other Yanks, to whose at- 
tention I fondly hope the booklet may come, will 
have brushed shoulders with Tommies in the fight- 
ing-line. I shall not need to tell those Americans 
what sort of scrappers the Britishers are. The 
best witnesses on that point would be German 
prisoners. Any Huns who have fought on the 
Western front could say things about Tommy At- 
kins far more eloquent and convincing than any- 
thing my faithful Waterman could put on paper. 

On August 8 and 9, 19 18, when Haig's army 
smashed the crack corps of Hindenburg's forces 
and liberated Amiens, the Britishers delivered a 
blow that the Germans themselves described as 
"the first reverse we had suffered during the war." 
That is not quite true, for when the French and 
British won the first battle of the Marne in Sep- 
tember, 1 9 14, the Germans sustained a "reverse" 
from which they never entirely recovered. But 
the punch in the jaw that Tommy gave Fritz in 



52 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

August of this year was the first dose of the real 
stuff that the Britishers handed the Germans. It 
was the goods, because it represented the British 
Army at last in its full stride, fortified by four 
years' experience with every device of warfare, 
however devilish, that the German method of 
fighting had taught it to employ. 

The army that Haig sent into battle to relieve 
Amiens took, in the single month of August, 

57,318 prisoners, including 1,283 officers; 

657 guns, including over 150 "Heavies"; 
5,750 machine-guns; 
1,000 trench-mortars; 

3 complete railway trains; 
9 locomotives; 
Numerous complete ammunition and en- 
gineering dumps, including hundreds of 
thousands of rounds of artillery and rifle 
ammunition, and war materials of all sorts. 

The British Army that gave the Germans that 
stinging uppercut was no longer the outnumbered, 
outgunned, outshelled Army that fought a forlorn 
hope at Mons in August, 19 14. This August, 
superiority of strength and skill was on the British 
side. 

Thanks very larely to their magnificent equip- 
ment with aircraft and with that exclusively Brit- 
ish invention, the tank — I think the tank is charac- 
teristically British because it is big, cumbersome, 



THE BRITISH ARMY 53 

slow-moving and deadly once it gets started — ^the 
Tommies simply waded through the Germans. 
American troops fought with Haig, too, and there 
must be plenty of Yank eye-witnesses who can con- 
firm every word I am now setting down, viz., that 
on August 8 and 9 of 19 18 a.d. the British Army 
showed once and for all that it is the equal of any 
fighting organisation that ever went Into battle. 
It took the Britishers four years to get going, but 
"by the splendour of God," as their King Hal used 
to vow, they have done it. 

The British Army (supported and succoured al- 
ways by the British Navy, don't forget) has not 
been playing a merely defensive role on the blood- 
soaked plains of France and Belgium. It has 
fought In a dozen different places — In various 
parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. It has con- 
quered all the German Colonies overseas. To- 
day, with the Russians out of the war, the British- 
ers have to fight the Turkish army single-handed 
In Mesopotamia and Palestine. They helped to 
knock out the Bulgarians In Macedonia. They 
are rounding up the remnants of the German 
Army still at large In East Africa and the Came- 
roons. They rushed to the help of Italy last win- 
ter when the Austrians broke the Italian front. 
They sent troops across north-western Persia to 
occupy the great Russian oil-city of Baku, on the 
Caspian Sea, In order that a Germanised Russia, 
betrayed by the traitor-Bolsheviks, might not be 



54 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

the stepping-stone for a German lunge at the 
heart of India. In the far north of Russia, at Arch- 
angel, British troops were landed, to prevent 
Germany's seizure of Russia's one gateway to the 
Atlantic. At Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast, 
British troops are in line alongside American, 
Japanese and gallant Czecho-Slovak contingents 
to preserve Siberia from the rapacious designs of 
Germany in that direction. In all theatres of war 
British armies up to August 19, 19 18, had taken 
224,787 prisoners, including 159,787 in France. 

The spoils of Napoleonic victory have not yet 
fallen to the Britishers' lot. But when the full 
story of the Great War is written, I believe its 
chroniclers will say that Britain bit off far more 
than Napoleon ever tried to chew — and chewed it. 

By backing France for four long years, the Brit- 
ish Army saved Europe. While we were getting 
ready, the Britishers held the fort — the fort from 
which you and they, marching shoulder to shoulder 
with our glorious and invincible French Allies, 
are now sallying forth to victory. 




KING GEORGE AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA REVIEWING THE AMERICAN BIARCII PAST 
AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE, MAY 25, 1918. 




London's mighty welcome to the American vanguard Trafalgar square, 
AUGUST 15, 1917. 



CHAPTER y 

THE HOME ARMY 

Modern war Is not merely a matter of soldiers, 
guns and ships. It has to be waged on two fronts, 
one just as important as the other — the fighting 
line and at home. The folks you khaki chaps left 
behind you — the tens of millions who don't wear 
uniforms, obtain commissions or reap any of the 
spectacular glory of war — are just as essential to 
conducting and winning the war as soldiers in the 
trenches or sailors in battleships. They make up 
the Home Army, without whose loyalty and indus- 
try the real army "Over There" would soon be- 
come useless. 

In previous chapters I have dealt with the regu- 
lar Army and Navy of Great Britain. I would 
now like to tell you what the Home Army has 
done, for the achievements of the civilian popula- 
tion of these islands are as splendid and vital a 
contribution to Liberty's Cause as anything their 
fighting lads have accomplished. It is solely be- 
cause this class of Britishers — men, women and 
children — have "carried on" patiently, stubbornly, 
for four hard years that the British Army and 

55 



56 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Navy are not only still intact, despite heavy losses, 
but are in every way stronger than ever. It is the 
devotion of the Home Army that has enabled the 
Government to build up a gigantic munition indus- 
try. British civihans have given freely of their 
money, subscribing incessantly from their savings 
for War Loans and submitting without a whimper 
to heavy taxes on their incomes and on some of the 
principal necessities of life. They have tolerated 
uncomplainingly the rationing of their food. They 
have accepted rigid control of their drink. In- 
deed, they have almost been put on the water- 
wagon. They have not objected to interference 
with the commonest everyday liberties. They 
have put up, in short, with any and every thing 
deemed necessary to victory. The Germans have 
done all these things because they had to, and 
whined about it. The Britishers have done them 
because they wanted to, and took pride in doing so. 
I don't mean for a minute that Great Britain has 
transferred from the easy-going standards of peace 
to the grim conditions of war without kicking. 
They call it "grousing" over here, and there are 
just as many "grousers" to the square inch in these 
Islands as there are kickers in other countries. 
When I say that the Britishers have "carried on" 
in a spirit of high-minded patriotism, I mean the 
great broad masses of the country, the over- 
whelming majority. I mean particularly the 
working classes, and I mean quite particularly the 



THE HOME ARMY 57 

women-folk. British workers and British women 
have been splendid. They have borne the brunt 
magnificently. 

In your meanderings up and down England and 
Scotland and Wales you are meeting, I guess, 
many a Britisher who tells you he is "fed up" with 
the war. The chances are you'll hear Tommies 
home on leave say the same thing, especially lads 
with the Mons ribbon or chevrons, which indicate 
that they've been in the game going on four years 
or more. Yes, the Britishers are "fed up" with 
the war. Good Lord, who wouldn't be, after what 
they have gone through? Do you suppose that we 
Yanks will be as eager, as "keen" (as the EngHsh 
say) , about the war as we are now if Providence 
inflicts four years of it on us? We shall be more 
than human if we are. But don't make the 
mistake of imagining that "fed up" means despair. 
It may mean that the Britishers are tired. War- 
worn they certainly are. Heaven knows, a rest is 
coming to them. But that does not mean they are 
ready to throw up the sponge. The piece of war 
slang that summarises the Britishers best Is this 
bit of doggerel : "Are We Downhearted? NO/" 

As the war drags on from month to month, and 
from year to year, I often think of John Bull as a 
champion heavyweight pugilist, like our "John 
L.," of immortal memory. "John L." faced many 
a tough antagonist in his day. Usually he knocked 



58 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

them out In the early rounds, but every once in a 
while he met a man who made him fight like Hell 
for a dozen rounds or more. The champion on 
these occasions had to stretch himself to the limit 
of his powers. One of his eyes was blackened. 
Good red blood oozed from his battered nose. 
He was black and blue at half a dozen places, hut 
his wind was all right, his vision was not impaired^ 
his arms could still shoot out rights, lefts and up- 
percuts, and he was firmly on his legs. To rattle 
John L., the other fellow's seconds would call out : 
"Why don't you quit — ^you're groggy!" And then 
the champion, by way of contemptuous retort, 
would hand his opponent a stiffer punch than any 
"John L." had yet delivered. The British — "ex- 
hausted," so the German Government told the 
German people — handed Hindenburg this Autumn 
the nastiest smacks in the eye that he has had for 
many a day. John Bull gave Heinle a little of the 
John L. stuff. 

The Britishers' attitude toward the war — the 
attitude of the Home Army — reminds me, too, of 
the American Admiral in our 1812 war with Eng- 
land. When the Admiral was asked to surrender 
because his Inferior squadron was badly mauled, 
he replied: "Surrender? By God, I've only be- 
gun to fight !" Yes, the Britishers have been bad- 
ly mauled. But now that at last they face on 
something like equal terms, instead of bare-breast- 



THE HOME ARMY 59 

ed, a foe which had been dolling up for war for 
half a century, they have "only begun to fight." 

The Britishers face the Germans on approxi- 
mately equal terms because they are to-day pro- 
vided with the principal sinews of war — arms and 
ammunition — on a gigantic scale. While the 
Army and Navy were holding the foe at bay on 
land and sea, the Home Army created an indus- 
trial plant that has been well described as "the 
miracle of munitions." John Bull opposed the 
Mailed Fist of the Kaiser In 19 14 with practically 
an ungloved hand. The original Expeditionary 
Force went into battle at Mons, I suppose, with 
about as many machine-guns per division as the 
German Army had per company. It was May, 
19 1 5 — ten months after the war started — before 
the Britishers discovered that they were fighting 
Germany's high-explosive shells with almost use- 
less shrapnel. Our comrades-in-arms had paid 
dearly in life and treasure before they found that 
out, but it proved to be the turning-point of the 
war. Thereupon the British Government created 
a "Ministry of Munitions," which set itself the 
task not only of making up the deficiency from 
which the Army suffered, but of outstripping the 
superiority which the Germans so long enjoyed. 

The Britishers have done the trick. They have 
out-Krupped Krupps. To-day Britain is one Im- 
mense arsenal, her man and woman power mobil- 



60 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

ised, her Industries placed upon a war footing, her 
every thought and energy concentrated upon the 
single task of supplying her fighting forces with 
their essential needs. About 2,500,000 men and 
1,000,000 women are now at work on munition- 
making — ^big guns, shells, rifles, small arms am- 
munition, aeroplanes, machine-guns, tanks, gas, 
and all the other junk required for "kanning the 
Kaiser." National arsenals (Government-owned 
munition works) have increased from three in 
19 14 to more than 180 in 19 18. Private manu- 
facturing firms engaged on munitions num- 
ber over 10,000. "Controlled Establishments" 
(firms which give precedence to Government work 
and employ labour under conditions fixed by the 
Ministry of Munitions) total more than 5,000. 
The following table shows the comparative rate 
of output in the first four years of the war, with 
the figure i as a basis : 

Ammunition: 1914-15 1915-16 1916-17 1917-18 

For light guns. . . . i 5 19 5 

For medium guns . . i 5 25 22 

For heavy guns . . . i 6 70 400 

For very heavy guns i 21 220 280 



Guns : 










Machine-guns 


I 


12 


39 


70 


Heavy guns and 










Howitzers 


I 


5 


27 


40 


Very heavy ditto. . 


I 


5 


13 


16 


Steel (million tons) 


7 


9 


10 


ID 



THE HOME ARMY 61 

To give you an idea of the rate at which the 
Home Army has turned out munitions, let me tell 
you that during the Somme offensive in 191 6 Brit- 
ain was issuing to her armies on the Western 
Front an amount of ammunition equal to the entire 
stock available for her land service at the outbreak 
of the war. During the battles of this year 
( 1918) the British Army is firing more than dou- 
ble the volume of shells it used up on the Somme In 
19 1 6. The present rate of output, moreover, al- 
lows for the production next year of enough guns 
and shells to make the British artillery even 
stronger still in weight, intensity and striking 
power. 

During the first five weeks of the German offen- 
sive which compelled the British to retreat in 
March and April, 19 18, from their hard-won posi- 
tions on the Somme, the British lost nearly 1,000 
field-guns and between 4,000 and 5,000 machine- 
guns — including captured and destroyed. The 
amount of ammunition lost in dumps amounted to 
something between a week's and three weeks' total 
manufacture. These admissions are official. 
None the less, by the end of April all of these 
losses were more than made good, and there were 
actually more serviceable guns and ammunition 
available than when the battle opened. 

In aeroplane construction, too, the British have 
accomplished wonders. British factories are to- 



62 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

day building in a single week more flying-machines 
than they made during the whole of 19 14; in a 
single month, more than were made in the whole 
of 191 5; and in three months more than in the 
whole of 1 9 1 6. The output for the whole of 1 9 1 8 
will be several times what it was during 19 17. 

These colossal achievements — there is no other 
description for them — are the result of two things : 
the Britishers' talent for organisation, mistakenly 
thought to be a German monopoly, and the zeal 
and patriotism of British workers, especially wom- 
en. Nine-tenths of the whole manufacture of 
shells are the result of the labour of women and 
girls who before the war had never even seen a 
lathe! I feel like taking off my hat to every Brit- 
ish lass I see in the brown or blue "kit" of a muni- 
tion worker, or in the uniform of a 'bus-conductor, 
or driving an Army or Navy or Air Force motor- 
car, or doing any of the many other jobs that girls 
and women are holding down in order to liberate 
men for the fighting services. If you could see, as 
I have seen, British girls of 18, 20, or 23 at work 
in the great steel mills of Sheffield — at Hadfield's 
or Firth's — ^swinging iio-lb. red-hot steel ingots 
into the hydraulic presses, unafraid, skilled, veri- 
table daughters of Titan, you, too, would feel like 
saluting them; for it is they who are mainly re- 
sponsible for the fact that British heavy artillery 
is now able to pound the German line to a frazzle 



THE HOME ARMY 63 

every time the guns bark. And remember that 
American artillery, too, is to a large extent sup- 
plied with shells which these British women and 
girls are making. 

Germany hoped to choke the life out of England 
by means of the U-boat, that is to say by destroy- 
ing so many ships that the British Isles could no 
longer import food or the other vital sinews of 
war. Thus the question of ships was the British- 
ers' chief problem, and here, too, the Home Army 
has worked wonders. The submarines have, in- 
deed, played frightful havoc with the world's ton- 
nage. Up to August I, 19 1 8, according to Ger- 
man official claims, the pirates had sunk 18,800,- 
000 tons of shipping — Allied and neutral. That 
is rather more than the tonnage of the entire Brit- 
ish Mercantile Marine when war broke out. The 
large majority of vessels sunk by U-boats has, of 
course, been British shipping. The Britishers 
tackled with characteristic tenacity the question 
of making good these serious losses. In 19 17, 
1,163,000 gross tons of merchant shipping were 
launched from British yards, as compared with 
542,000 tons in the previous year, and 1,919,000 
tons during the last year of peace. Since 19 17 
British shipbuilding has been speeded up even still 
more. In the quarter ended June 30 there was 
an increase of 78 per cent, over the figures for 
the corresponding three months of 19 17. 



64s EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

Hog Island and Seattle aren't the only places 
where shipbuilders know how to hustle. At the 
great Harland and Wolff yard at Belfast (Ire- 
land) the other day an 8,000-ton "standard" ship 
was made ready for sea six days after launching, 
the usual time being six weeks. Remember that in 
addition to replenishing their Mercantile Marine, 
the Britishers have had to keep up their warship 
construction. Repair work alone, on Naval and 
Mercantile craft, has been a gigantic job. Dam- 
aged craft of all nations limps to British dry docks 
for overhauling. It is no wonder that the British- 
ers look to us to concentrate on new shipbuilding. 
They are confident that "Charlie" Schwab will 
deliver the goods, too. 

The primary necessities of war nowadays are 
"the two M's" — munitions and money. If you 
have to produce tons of munitions, you must put up 
tons of money. The Britishers have not failed in 
that direction. The figures are so fantastic as al- 
most to baffle ordinary comprehension. They run 
not into mere millions, but into tens of billions. 
The war is now costing them about $40,000,000 a 
day. Up to April, 19 18, it had cost them about 
$35,070,000,000. By April, 1919, it is estimated 
that the war bill will have reached fifty billion dol- 
lars! The Britishers are not only financing them- 
selves but their European Allies as well. The Old 
Country (England, Scotland and Wales) is, as 



THE HOME ARMY 65 

usual, bearing the burden for the whole Empire. 
Up to the end of July, 191 8, Great Britain had 
advanced to her various Allies in Europe the fabu- 
lous sum of $7,010,000,000 — ^that is to say, more 
than seven billion dollars. To her Colonies 
(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa 
and the rest) the Motherland had loaned another 
billion — $1,042,500,000. The statement of her 
help to her Allies shows advances to 

Russia $2,840,000,000 

France 2,010,000,000 

Italy 1,565,000,000 

Belgium 1 

Serbia 1 595,000,000 

Greece J 

Total $7,010,000,000 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury) explained the other day 
what *'a thousand miUion pounds" (five billion 
dollars ) really means. "It represents," he said, 
"the labour of ten million men for a whole year." 
That conveys some impression of what the British 
Home Army is doing in the way of providing 
money for the war. Never forget that it has been 
doing so not for a year and a half, like the United 
States, hut for four years. It continues to "Pay, 
Pay, Pay," without a murmur. It puts up and 
shuts up. 



66 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

In the Summer of 191 8 the British broke all 
their previous financial war records, indeed estab- 
lished a world's record, by purchasing more than 
$5,000,000,000 in National War Bonds. They 
did it in exactly ten months. No previous loan in 
any country ever placed so much actually new 
money at the disposal of the State. It beat even 
the best Liberty Loan record in the United States. 
Before that the world's record was held by 
the British War Loan of 19 17, which yielded 
$4,742,295,000 in actual cash received. The Na- 
tional War Bond drive, which lasted from Octo- 
ber, 1917, to August, 19 1 8, surpassed that bumper 
figure by some $250,000,000. It was not a hip- 
hip-hurrah job of a week or a fortnight, mind you, 
with enthusiasm whipped up by all sorts of stunts. 
It represented regular, plugging, week-by-week 
investment. It meant money given by the plain 
people — by the men, women, and even the children 
of the Home Army, who dug up their pounds, 
shillings and pence in order to let Germany know 
that Britain, far from being downhearted, is pre- 
pared to "carry on," whatever the cost. 

A nation raises money for war by two methods 
— loans and taxation. By loan the Britishers have 
raised since 19 14 the colossal sum of $25, 850,- 
000,000. In addition they have imposed upon 
themselves special war taxation more drastic than 
anybody would ever have thought possible, 



THE HOME ARMY 67 

amounting thus far to $9,220,000,000. The Brit- 
ishers are paying income-tax at from ^6 cents to 
$2.65 on every five dollars they earn above the 
exemption limit. Think of that. The very rich 
man is paying over one-half of his income in in- 
come-tax and super-tax alone. Tax must be paid 
on war profits to the extent of 80 per cent, of the 
total. The cost of railway travelling has been 
raised by 50 per cent. Britishers are now about to 
tax themselves four cents on every 25 cents spent 
on luxury articles. 

Meantime the cost of living in Great Britain has 
gone up enormously. The purchasing value of the 
sovereign ($5) for the necessaries of life has been 
reduced to about $3. The ordinary middle-class 
Briton, whose income has not gone up since 19 14, 
is to-day practically in the position of having had 
it cut in half, so much has its buying-power de- 
creased. Yet the nation continues to come for- 
ward with its earnings and savings more lavishly, 
more freely, more confidently than ever. 

But even more splendid than the manner in 
which they are giving of their toil and treasure is 
the uncomplaining spirit in which the Britishers 
give of their life-blood. That's where their amaz- 
ing "reserve" and composure stand them in good 
stead. Parents lose their second, third, fourth 
sons ; wives, their husbands ; children, their bread- 
winners. But nobody whimpers. Lips are only 
stiffened. It is Sparta reborn. 



68 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

The beginning of the fifth year of the war finds 
the Britishers going to it with bulldog determina- 
tion to "stick it" until they get the only kind of a 
peace they or we will ever accept — a peace that 
leaves the Allies completely victorious and Ger- 
many at our mercy. 



CHAPTER VI 

IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 

It will probably be a long time before the world 
decides upon the most appropriate name for the 
war. I still think that General Sherman's descrip- 
tion was the best for all wars. He called them 
"Hell." But as far as Germany is concerned, the 
best name would be "The War of Miscalcula- 
tions," or "The War of Bad Guesses." When he 
cranked his mighty war-machine in 19 14, the 
Kaiser miscalculated right and left. His biggest 
miscalculation was the pipe-dream that the British- 
ers wouldn't fight. But even if they would some 
day be compelled to fight — ^to ward off the attack 
which Germany was so long preparing to launch — 
the Germans persistently led themselves to believe 
that the war would only be with England, Scotland 
and Ireland. This is the way they doped it out : — 

"The British Empire will collapse like a house 
of cards the moment the old country finds itself 
mixed up in a serious European war. Ireland will 
secede. India will revolt. Egypt will break away. 
Australia, Canada and New Zealand will immedi- 
ately declare their independence. South Africa, 

69 



70 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

still sore from the effects of the Boer War, will 
seize the opportunity for revenge. England the 
tyrant will find herself stranded and forsaken by 
her oppressed Colonies and Oversea Dominions, 
and one day they will fall into Germany's lap like 
ripe fruit. Germany is the rightful heir to the 
British Empire." 

Yes, that was the dope in Germany for years. I 
was there, and I know it. I heard it and I wrote 
about it. The people of Germany believed it. 
They read it day after day in their newspapers and 
political literature. If they were university stu- 
dents, they got it direct from their professors, who 
taught the youth of the Fatherland war and the 
glory of war just as thoroughly as they taught 
them philosophy, or zoology, or mathematics. 
The Germans are a very systematic nation. They 
plan out things carefully in advance. So one of 
their long-distance arrangements for "The Day" 
on which they hoped to smash the British Empire 
was the sowing of discord throughout the British 
territories oversea. German spies and German in- 
triguers infested Ireland, India, Egypt and South 
Africa. Whenever there was a chance of stirring 
up old-time hatreds of England, these spies and 
intriguers got busy. It has been proved that wher- 
ever serious unrest has manifested itself in the 
British Empire during the war, Germans liberally 
supplied with German money were the niggers in 
the woodpile. But the funds were badly invested. 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 71 

They produced no results of corresponding value. 
Germany backed the wrong horse when she put 
her money on "British Empire Revolution" in the 
World-War Race. 

Take Ireland. Tens of thousands of Pershing's 
great army are Irish by birth or ancestry. I saw a 
statement the other day that 25 per cent, of the 
American troops are Roman Catholic. The vast 
majority of that number must be "Oirish lads." 
Ireland is not a happy land. It never has been. It 
is troublous by nature because, as a witty Irishman 
himself has said, "An Irishman doesn't know what 
he wants, and, be-jabers, he won't be happy till he 
gets it." Thanks mainly to the activities of Sinn 
Fein agitators during the war, certain misguided 
patriots have kept the spirit of unrest alive in Ire- 
land. But how insignificant is their number, and 
how miserable the service they rendered their 
country, compared to the thousands of splendid 
Irish troops who have fought on the British side in 
France and elsewhere since the hour of the war's 
beginning! The great Irish leader — taken away, 
unfortunately, in the midst of the war — John 
Redmond, made a memorable speech in Parlia- 
ment on the eve of the war. He pledged his word 
that Ireland would remain loyal to Liberty's cause 
and do nothing to prevent Great Britain from 
fighting at full strength. Ireland would not se- 
cede, Redmond declared. Last year Redmond's 
own brother, Major Willie Redmond, fell in bat- 



72 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

tie on the Western front, fighting for England 
and for Ireland. Long before that a typical 
young Irishman, a poor boy named Mike O'Leary, 
won the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery in 
the field. There have been thousands of Willie 
Redmonds and Mike O'Learys, all Irish to the 
core, who have done their "bit" gallantly and are 
still doing it. They are imbued with the spirit 
that tore Tom Kettle, a brilliant young Irish law- 
yer, from a promising career in politics, and fired 
him with the determination to fight and die for 
Freedom's cause. Kettle was a deep-dyed Irish 
patriot. He was looked upon by many people as 
the future chieftain of the Nationalist party. But 
he was filled with the solemn conviction that no 
true Irishman could keep out of a fight against 
the nation branded by President Wilson as "the 
natural foe to liberty." So Tom Kettle got a com- 
mission in the Dublin Fusiliers and eventually 
died a hero's death in France. Irishmen like Red- 
mond and Kettle know that a Hun victory in this 
war would mean the occupation of Ireland by 
Germany and the enslavement of the Irish people 
for all time under the heel of Prussian militarism. 
In 19 14 and 19 15 many Irish soldiers fell into 
German hands as prisoners of war. The Kaiser 
soon found out the kind of stuff these brawny sons 
of Erin are made of. He tried to jolly them Into 
forming an "Irish Legion" of the German Army. 
He promised them swell green uniforms, with 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 73 

shamrocks embroidered on the collars and harps 
on the caps. He said they might all get drunk on 
St. Patrick's Day at Germany's expense and other- 
wise maintain the glorious traditions of the Seven- 
teenth of March. He told them they would be 
sent back to Ireland when the war was over, with 
their pockets lined with captured English gold. 
He held out all kinds of baits designed to induce 
Mike and Pat to be traitors. But the boys from 
Cork and Kilkenny, from Killarney and Tipper- 
ary, would stand for no bunk of that kind, however 
alluring. The Irish Guards, Irish Fusiliers, Con- 
naught Rangers, Royal Dublins, Royal Munsters, 
Irish Rifles, Inniskillings, or men of other famous 
Irish regiments, whom Germany wanted to seduce, 
simply howled down the treacherous comrades 
who tried to make speeches to them in favour of 
the Kaiser. Those whom they couldn't howl down 
they beat up. The "Irish Legion" is still languish- 
ing in those abodes of horror known as German 
prison camps. Mike and Pat prefer the terrors of 
German captivity to the glory of fighting for the 
Kaiser. 

I have told you about Ireland at this length be- 
cause many of you are Irish by origin and because 
all Americans love the Irish. I was educated by 
Irish Catholic priests and one of the best friends I 
have in the world is Father John Cavanaugh, 
C.S.C., President of my Alma Mater of Notre 
Dame University, Indiana. I played baseball with 



74 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

"Jim" Burns and "Mike" Quinlan, who, like 
Cavanaugh, became priests and eminent figures in 
the Americal educational world. The Very Rev. 
"Jim" Burns made a speech at a Catholic Con- 
vention in 'Frisco the other day. He said that the 
khaki uniform which British and American sol- 
diers are now wearing "is the livery of God, and 
makes our sons and brothers soldiers of the Lord." 
At the same convention another Irish-American, 
John J. Barrett, speaking on Catholic loyalty, said : 

^ "We pledge our country our single-hearted 

allegiance. We entertain no scruples about 
the justice of her participation in the conflict. 
We approve the course she has taken in the 
crisis, and we would have had her take no 
other. We stand ready to promote our coun- 
try's fortunes at the sacrifice of all our re- 
sources of human life and earthly possessions. 
With all our strength and mind and heart we 
pray for victory to the arms of our country 
and her gallant Allies. We hold no alle- 
giance that conflicts with our love of the 
flag, and wherever it leads we are prepared 
to follow." 

When I read such things, I cannot help thinking 
that Irish-Americans to a man must profoundly re- 
gret that the Emerald Isle — that "Little Bit of 
Heaven" — has not played more of a man's-sized 
part in this struggle for civilisation and liberty. 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 75 

Where shall I begin to tell the story of the mag- 
nificent role which the great self-governing Do- 
minions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and 
South Africa have played as members of the Brit- 
ish Empire ? Again, for lack of space, I shall have 
to confine myself to a few mere facts and figures. 
I would like to have devoted the whole book to 
them, for I know how fond you Yanks are of the 
husky boys from the Colonies. You rightly dis- 
cern that they are very much like yourselves. In 
physique and temperament. They are wide-shoul- 
dered and muscular, tall, lanky and breezy, and 
they almost speak our language ! Brought up, as we 
were, on vast continents, their point of view about 
life is broad-gauged. Like us, they find many 
things in England small, cramped and insular. But 
they have learned, as you will learn, that size 
isn't everything, and that even islands, if inhabited 
by men and women of red blood, cut ice too. 
The Anzacs from "down under," the Canucks 
from our side of the pond, and the big fellows 
from South Africa will all go home with very dif- 
ferent ideas about the Old Country; and, judging 
by the skylarking that is going on, I guess a good 
many of them will take back English wives, too. 

The significant fact about Colonial participation 
in the war is the evidence it supplies that the 
Colonies believe in the justice of the English cause. 
The Australians and New Zealanders would not 
have come 14,000 miles to fight if they didn't think 



76 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

the English case was absolutely on the square. 
The lads of Dutch extraction who drove the Ger- 
mans out of South-West Africa would not have 
left the veldt and crossed 10,000 miles of sea to 
fight in Europe, as they are doing, if they weren't 
dead sure that England deserved their help. The 
Canadians would not have abandoned their farms 
and businesses to hurry across the Atlantic and 
bleed for the Motherland if they were not con- 
vinced that England was right. By the enthusiasm 
with which the British clans have gathered from 
the four quarters of the Empire, they have ex- 
posed the German propaganda claim that British 
rule is "tyrannical," that British foreign policy Is 
"deceitful and aggressive," and that England 
went to war for gain and out of greed. The Colo- 
nials rushed to arms because the complete inde- 
pendence which they enjoy within the British Em- 
pire was just as much threatened by Germany as 
the liberties of England, Scotland, Wales and Ire- 
land. 

Australia's population Is smaller than that of 
New York City, yet 426,000 Australian soldiers 
have been enlisted, every one of them volunteers. 
Up to August I, 19 1 8, 321,000 of them had been 
embarked for various Allied fields of battle. 
That is more men than the whole British Empire 
sent to the South African war eighteen years ago I 
Considerably over 8 per cent, of Australia's popu- 
lation has "joined up." Already 52,385 Austra- 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 77 

Hans have been killed in action; 135,245 have been 
wounded, and only 3,353 have surrendered to the 
enemy, most of these because wounds had put 
them out of action. The total war expenditure of 
Australia exceeds a billion dollars — the exact total 
is $1,100,000,000. In 1918 her war bill will 
amount to $500,000,000. Alone and single- 
handed the 5,000,000 inhabitants of Australia 
have organised and paid for the equipment, trans- 
port and upkeep of their great army. For the past 
two years Australia has maintained five divisions 
in France, the equivalent of one cavalry division 
in Egypt and Palestine, and kept all battalions to 
strength by constant reinforcements from volun- 
tary enlistment. The personnel of the Royal Aus- 
tralian Navy exceeds 9,000 officers and men. This 
is the young Fleet which distinguished itself in the 
first three months of the war by hunting down and 
destroying the famous raider, Emden. The Aus- 
tralians have their own independent army or- 
ganisation — hospitals, medical services, aviation 
branch, training camps, and everything. Their 
Corps in France, commanded by a self-made Mel- 
bourne business-man (General Sir John Monash), 
greatly distinguished itself in this summer's victori- 
ous Allied fighting in France. The Australians 
lived up splendidly to the brilliant record made by 
their earliest comrades, the heroes of the Allies' 
ill-starred venture at Gallipoli in 19 15. The 
bravery of the Australian soldier is now prover- 



78 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

blal. There are hardly any troops that the Ger- 
mans so hate to go up against as the boys from 
the bush country. Somebody told me that the 
Yanks on the Western front underwent their bap- 
tism of fire alongside Australian troops. Our 
army could have had no better model. Australia, 
having sent her boys to the war, intends seeing that 
they are well taken care of when they come back. 
She purposes repatriating all of them and re-es- 
tablishing them in civil life at an estimated cost of 
$150,000,000. 

Canada's record is no less glorious than that of 
Australia. She has enlisted 552,000 men, and 
sent 383,500 overseas. I guess that total includes 
the thousands of Yanks who enlisted in the 
Canadian Army before we came into the war. 
The Canadians have fought in many of the 
bloodiest engagements in which the British Army 
has taken part in France and Flanders. Up to the 
middle of this year Canadian casualties amounted 
to 159,084, including 43,279 killed in action, or 
died of wounds or disease. Thirty Canadians 
have won the Victoria Cross. Over 200 Cana- 
dian officers have been on duty in the United 
States as instructors. Like the Australians, the 
Canadians maintain a completely independent mil- 
itary organisation. They have a wonderful Air 
Service of their own, including champions like 
Lieut.-Colonel Bishop, V.C. (72 Hun machines 
brought to earth), and during the past 3^ years 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 79 

have sent into aviation a total of 14,000 men. 
Canada is becoming an important factor in ship- 
building. Her output of munitions is of the great- 
est importance. She has produced nearly a billion 
dollars' worth altogether. Of some particular 
varieties of shells Canadian munition works turned 
out during 19 17 and 19 18 40 per cent, of the en- 
tire needs of the British Army. 

Canada has come across with her money as well 
as with her men and munitions. Her war bill will 
total $1,200,000,000 by the end of this year. 
The Dominion Treasury has loaned to the Mother 
Country the sum of $460,000,000 to assist in pay- 
ing for munitions, and Canadian banks have 
loaned still another $100,000,000 for the same 
purpose. These are colossal achievements for a 
country whose population in 191 1 (7,206,643) 
was not as large as Pennsylvania's (7,665,111). 
We of the United States are proud of our great 
neighbour on the North. Her sons and daughters 
live on the same sort of soil that we inhabit and 
breathe the same invigorating air. The coasts of 
their vast continent are washed by the identical 
waters that lash the shores of the United States. 
The Canadians have added fresh lustre to the 
North American name. Yanks in England are 
often mistaken for Canadians, and Canadians for 
Americans. Both of us chew gum, play base- 
ball, and have other tastes in common. The Brit- 
ishers say that we do the same things to the Eng- 



80 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

lish language too. Well, I don't know how the 
Canucks feel about It; but if I were an American 
soldier I would be mighty glad If anybody thought 
I belonged to the army that made Itself Immortal 
at VImy Ridge In 19 17, and this year, In the great 
battle of Amiens, accomplished even greater deeds. 
Read how the proud Commander-in-Chief of the 
Canadian Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur 
Currle — a 43-year-old giant — summarised the 
work of his men In front of Amiens : — 

"On August 8 the Canadian Corps, to 
which was attached the 3rd Cavalry Division, 
the 4th Tank Brigade, the 5th Squadron 
R.A.F., attacked on a front of 7,500 yards. 
After a penetration of 22,000 yards the line 
to-night rests on a 10,000-yard frontage. Six- 
teen German divisions have been Identified, 
of which four have been completely routed. 
Nearly 150 guns have been captured, while 
over 1,000 machine-guns have fallen Into our 
hands. Ten thousand prisoners have passed 
through our cages and casualty clearing sta- 
tions, a number greatly In excess of our total 
casualties. Twenty-five towns and villages 
have been rescued from the clutch of the In- 
vaders, the Parls-Amlens railway has been 
freed from interference and the danger of 
dividing the French and British Army has 
been dissipated." 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 81! 

That's glory enough, to my way of thinking, to 
last Toronto and Winnipeg, Alberta and Saskatch- 
ewan, Vancouver and Ottawa, till the crack of 
doom. 

I wish I had the space to continue the story, in 
detail, of what the other British clans have done 
in the hour of the Motherland's peril. But it would 
only be a repetition on a proportionate scale of 
what AustraFia and Canada are doing. New Zea- 
land, with a population of just over a million, has 
sent about 100,000 troops, white and coloured, to 
Freedom's battlefields. Together with the Aus- 
tralians, the New Zealanders formed the famous 
"Anzac" Corps at Gallipoli. They are mighty 
warriors, of the grim type of American plainsmen, 
and are feared and deeply respected on the Ger- 
man front. Many Maori tribesmen — the same 
fighting stuff as our black men — are in the N.Z. 
bunch. 

South Africa at the outbreak of the war gave 
the Germans one of their cruellest disappointments 
by raising a volunteer army of 58,000 under the 
leadership of General Louis Botha — ^the Dutch- 
man who less than fifteen years previous was in 
arms against England on the same soil. Botha's 
army conquered the Kaiser's finest oversea col- 
ony, German South-West Africa, an area of 
322,500 square miles. Since then the South 
African army under another old Boer War enemy 
of England, General Smuts, has conquered Ger- 



82 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

man East Africa. In addition to kiboshing the 
Kaiser in Africa, the South Africans have sent 
nearly 10,000 men to Europe, including some of 
the finest fighting material which the British Em- 
pire affords. Little Newfoundland, the smallest 
British colony, has done her full bit, too, and con- 
tributed far more in men and money than might 
have been expected from a country of only 250,000 
inhabitants. From wherever the Union Jack flies, 
Britannia's sons have rallied to fight and die for 
her — from Malta, Fiji, Jamaica, Ceylon, Shang- 
hai, the Bahamas, Barbados, British Guiana, Do- 
minica, Trinidad, Bermuda. 

India, that priceless jewel in the British Crown, 
will never be forgiven in Berlin. Germany's fond- 
est hopes of all were pinned on "revolution" in 
the vast Empire of the Maharajahs. Incipient 
sedition has long been smouldering in isolated 
parts of India, and the Kaiser implicitly believed 
that the embers of unrest would speedily burst 
forth into a furious blaze among the 320,000,000 
people of England's greatest dependency. He and 
his German spies fanned those embers for years. 
What happened? In September, 19 14, a stately 
armada of transports entered Marseilles harbour, 
bearing 70,000 troops from India, under Indian 
officers, to fight for England and France against 
Germany ! Since then Indians have been in action 
with unfailing gallantry in almost every theatre of 
war in which England is fighting — in Mesopota- 



IRELAND AND THE COLONIES 83 

mia, in Palestine, in Macedonia, on the Suez 
Canal and in East Africa. The great native 
Princes of India, who are nominally the subjects 
of the King of England in his capacity as Emperor 
of India, have given freely of their vast fortunes 
for the British cause. By every means in their 
power they have urged their own native subjects 
to go forth in the Empire's cause. The Aga Khan, 
the head of the Mahomedans, called on all of the 
faithful to fight for England, and he himself vol- 
unteered to serve as a private in any Indian in- 
fantry regiment. The Grand Old Man of India, 
Lieutenant-General Sir Pertab Singh, has com- 
manded Indian troops in France. 

So runs the Empire's story of glory since 19 14. 
Historians will compile volumes about it some day. 
Poets will be inspired to sing of it in verse. All 
that concerns us to-day is to know that the British 
Empire has made good with a big G. The demo- 
cratic system, under which these little Islands gov- 
ern five hundred million people of all colours, 
creeds and conditions, was tried and not found 
wanting. 



CHAPTER VII 

HOW THE BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 

The British Empire is a free country. None 
freer exists anywhere on God's footstool. The 
Britishers boast that there is more freedom under 
their Union Jack than there is under our Stars and 
Stripes. We won't argue that point with them. I 
merely allude to it to make you understand that 
although they have a King and a House of Lords, 
and Princes and Dukes and titles, and all that sort 
of thing, the Britishers look upon themselves as 
being in all respects as Democratic and as free a 
nation as the United States. I have already de- 
scribed Great Britain to you as a country with a 
President who is called a King. I cannot think of 
any better or truer way of explaining the British 
Monarchy. There is one big difference. That Is, 
that the Britishers' Royal Chief Magistrate has 
not got nearly as much power as our American 
Presidents have. I suppose that is why the Brit- 
ishers think that their little old country is freer 
than ours. At any rate, I guess a good many of 
you have been agreeably surprised to find how free 
the British atmosphere really is. Have you found 

84 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 85 

the air around your Rest Camps a bit different 
from the air you breathed in New England, the 
Mississippi Valley, the South-West, or along the 
Pacific Coast? Except for the unfamiliar kind of 
English you've heard — and the funny stunts of 
the British climate — would you ever realise that 
you were in England instead of back home in Con- 
necticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, Minne- 
sota, or California? You haven't seen any signs 
up reading "The King forbids" this, that or the 
other thing, have you? You haven't seen the 
Tommies bowing and scraping in front of any 
Royal image, or speaking in awe-struck whispers 
about "His Majesty," have you? On your life, 
you have not. That's only done in Germany. It 
won't be done very much by the time you get there. 
Probably you've noticed that the British Army and 
Navy are called "His Majesty's Forces." The 
Government, too, is known as "His Majesty's 
Government." But, like the Monarchy itself, 
these things are only form. The Britisher loves 
form. In fact, he worships it. He knows just 
as well as you and I know that the Army and 
Navy are not "His Majesty's" forces really. 
They are the armed forces of the British Nation — 
to-day they are the nation itself. But the Army 
and Navy have been termed "His Majesty's 
Forces" for a thousand years or more, and as the 
Britishers are very strong for the musty things of 
life, they cling to that description of their military 



86 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

and naval establishments. It was good enough 
for their great-great-grandfathers and it's good 
enough for them. 

A lot of you by this time have memorised the 
first verse of the British National Anthem: 

"God save our gracious King, 
Long live our noble King, 
God save the King. 
Send him victorious, 
Happy and glorious, 
Long to reign over us, 
God save the King!" 

Now that's what the Britishers sing, and they 
always stand up when they sing it. Soldiers and 
sailors in uniform come stiffly to the salute when 
the anthem is played or sung. Don't get the idea 
that they show these signs of respect in any spirit 
of cringing servility to a crowned monarch. The 
King of England doesn't expect that kind of re- 
spect from his subjects — who are called subjects, 
by the way, again out of sheer form. They are 
In fact citizens, just like you and me. If they were 
really his "subjects," he would have power of life 
and death over them. He does not possess any 
such power. A Britisher can only be put to death 
or deprived of his liberty after a fair trial. No, 
*'God save the King" actually means "God save 
Britain." God is asked to send the King "victo- 
rious," but what the Britisher means when he sings 




MAJOR GENERAL JOHN BIDDLE. 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 87 

that prayer is that Britain be "sent victorious." 
He prays that the King may be kept "happy and 
glorious" and "long to reign over us" because the 
King is their accepted, even if not elected, Sover- 
eign. They venerate the monarchal tradition which 
he represents. They want him "saved" not be- 
cause he happens to be named Albert Edward or 
George or something else, but because he is the 
physical, personal embodiment of their rights and 
liberties under the crown which the reigning King 
wears by their consent and with their approval. 

You will ask me where the King "comes in," if 
he has no such power as our President wields. 
Well, there must be a head or a figurehead to 
every great concern, and a nation Is the greatest 
of all concerns. The King heads the British con- 
cern. The nearest thing the Britishers have to 
our President, as the actual head of their national 
administration, is the Prime Minister. Govern- 
ment In Great Britain is party government as It Is 
In the United States. The political party that gets 
the most votes at a "General Election" — which Is 
held about every five years for the purpose of 
electing members to the House of Commons (the 
British equivalent of our House of Representa- 
tives) — has the right to select one of its own mem- 
bers to be Prime Minister. If the Liberal Party 
gets a majority In the House of Commons, the 
Prime Minister will be a Liberal. If the Con- 
servative Party obtains the majority, a Conserva- 



88 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

tive is appointed Prime Minister. The Labour 
Party is now very strong in Great Britain, and 
some day, perhaps, it will have a majority in the 
House of Commons. Then a Labour leader will 
be called to the Prime Ministership. Whoever 
becomes Prime Minister selects the members of 
his own administration, just as the newly-elected 
President of the United States picks out his own 
Cabinet. The King nominally asks So-and-So to 
be Prime Minister and to compose a Government. 
But that is only a bluff. It is "form" again. The 
political party that the voters of the country have 
placed in power in Parliament (the House of 
Commons) decides who shall be Prime Minister, 
and the King sends for him and "appoints" him. 
Do you get that? The Prime Minister of Great 
Britain, in other words, is every hit as much "the 
people's choice" as is the President of the United 
States. 

But the Prime Minister does not become the 
ruler of the country. Parliament is the ruler. The 
"P.M." holds office only by the will and consent of 
Parliament. They vote him in and they can vote 
him out. If he brings in a Bill for the passage of 
some new law, and the House of Commons rejects 
it — in other words, turns the Prime Minister down 
— he and his Government have to appeal to the 
country. A new election is necessary. If the 
country supports him and sends back to Parlia- 
ment a House of Commons with a majority in 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 89 

favour of the Prime Minister, he retains office. 
Otherwise, he is out of a job, and the leader of the 
party to which the country has given a majority 
succeeds him as head of the Government. 

There may be a newly-elected Parliament in 
England before 191 8 is over, as there is a good 
deal of talk at the moment of a General Election. 
Then, once again, according to tradition, the King 
will formally "open" Parliament. He will ride 
from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords 
and there deliver a so-called "Speech from the 
Throne." It will use old-fashioned expressions 
like "My Government," "My Army," "My 
Navy," "My People," and other similar phrases. 
Nobody in Britain will get angry when he reads 
them next day in the newspaper. The King will 
use those expressions because they are part and 
parcel of the Royal System which the Britishers 
tolerate and venerate. That's all. The King's 
venerable language will not alter the fact that 
through their Parliament the British people rule. 

You will notice that I said that the King opens 
Parliament In the House of Lords. He does not 
go to the House of Commons, where the elected 
representatives of the people sit and rule. The 
House of Lords prior to 19 11 had a great deal 
more power than it now possesses. It is made up 
mostly of men who sit there by right of heredity — 
because they are the sons of their fathers. When 
the Duke of Norfolk or the Duke of Sutherland 



90 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

or the Duke of Portland dies, his eldest son be- 
comes the Duke of that name and takes his late 
father's place In the House of Lords, or Upper 
House, as It is sometimes called. So with the 
eldest sons (or other heirs) of Marquises, Earls, 
Viscounts, and plain Lords. The "Parliament Act 
of 191 1" made certain changes in the rights and 
privileges of the House of Lords. Their effect 
was to leave the elected House of Commons prac- 
tically the boss of the show. The House of Lords 
Is now more or less ornamental as far as the real 
government of Great Britain Is concerned. 

Having tried, as simply as I could, to tell you 
what the British governing system Is, I'll give you 
a little of the personal side of it. The Britishers 
couldn't have done the big things they have put 
across during the past four years if they didn't 
have Big Men at the helm. First of all, their 
King has proved himself to be a brick. Without 
thrusting himself Into the spot-light — that would 
have been neither Kingly, according to British 
tradition, nor British at all, because It would not 
have been "reserve" — George V., like the hum- 
blest of his people, has played the game. He sent 
his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, to the front as 
a soldier, and the lad, who Is 24, has proved him- 
self to be an Intelligent, efficient young officer, 
popular with the rank and file and In every respect 
a fine type of the Briton of his age and class. The 
King's second and third sons. Prince Albert and 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 91 

Prince Henry, who are aged 23 and 18 respective- 
ly, followed their father's footsteps and entered 
the Navy, though Prince Albert is now in aviation. 
What King George has done in the war has been 
to set his people a high example of patriotism and 
hard work. He (and the Queen too) has been 
indefatigable in every sort of activity designed to 
fire the enthusiasm of the people in getting on with 
and winning the war. The King visits the wounded 
in hospital, mingles with the workers in the muni- 
tion factories, goes to the Front in France period- 
ically to sojourn among the soldiers in the field, 
Inspect the Grand Fleet from time to time — with 
the eye of an expert sailor, for that Is the King's 
profession — and In every way associates himself 
with the stirring life and times of the nation at 
this great hour. I don't suppose there Is a man In 
all England who works harder at his job than the 
King does. He has to see an enormous number of 
Important people, both British and foreign. He 
has to sign hundreds of documents daily. His 
advice, under the British Constitution, has to be 
sought and secured on countless occasions. He 
himself Instituted the custom of conferring hon- 
ours, medals, decorations and titles for war serv- 
ice publicly, Instead of privately within the walls 
of Buckingham Palace. He has tried In every 
way to be, and succeeded In being, a People's King. 
He likes Americans — enjoys our breezy way of 
doing and saying things. Here's a story the King 



92 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

himself tells. Some time ago he had an American 
General at lunch. Conversation turned on the 
subject of what the world would be like after the 
war. "How do you think things will be?" the 
King asked our General. "Well, I don't know," 
replied the American, "but I'm dead sure of one 
thing — there'll he a lot of German talked in Hell!" 
The King loved that. He liked it because it was a 
free and easy come-back. He doesn't care much 
for side, either in himself or in others. He visited 
an American battleship in Irish waters last Sum- 
mer and shovelled coal Into the furnace. When 
the stokers marvelled at his skill, the King said: 
"Oh, that used to be one of my jobs when I was 
in the Navy." And, of course. King George has a 
strong claim on our affections because he's a base- 
ball fan. 

The Prime Minister of England Is David Lloyd 
George. He's a Welshman and the kind of man 
we honour in America, because he is self-made. He 
was a poor boy, with none of the advantages of 
wealth, birth, or position. He had nerve, ability, 
courage and a silver tongue, and those qualities 
made him Prime Minister In December, 191 6. 
Lloyd George was a live wire In British politics 
long before that. In 1900, when I first came to this 
country, he was only a private Member of Par- 
liament, but had already won a reputation for 
pugnacity. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer 
(Secretary of the Treasury) when war broke 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 93 

out, and in that capacity rendered important 
service in mobilising the finances of Great 
Britain. Germany hated him cordially for sev- 
eral years before 19 14, because when the Kai- 
ser got gay in Morocco in 191 1 and tried to bully 
France, it was a speech by Lloyd George that 
brought Germany to her senses and prevented war. 
In those critical hours in August, 19 14, when there 
were divisions in the British Cabinet on the ques- 
tion of intervention in the war, Lloyd George was 
one of the men who advocated from the very first 
that Britain should go in. A man of pacific tend- 
encies, a Democrat who believed in peace, Lloyd 
George wanted only peace with honour. He knew 
that Britain could not have that kind of peace if 
she stayed out. In 1915, when Britain came to the 
conclusion that a special Ministry of Munitions 
had to be created for the production of guns and 
shells on a gigantic scale, Lloyd George was put 
in charge of it. It was the right place for a man 
of his driving power and organising skill, and he 
will have a great niche in the history of the war 
for what he accomplished as Munitions Minister. 
Lloyd George is precisely the sort of public man 
who would be popular in the United States. If he 
had been born there, I think it would be a hard 
job to keep him out of the White House, for he 
is a natural leader of wonderful magnetism. There 
is a good deal of the Teddy Roosevelt about him. 



94 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

One of Lloyd George's heroes is Abraham Lin- 
coln, and his hobby is golf. 

I wish I had the space to tell in detail of a lot of 
the other Big Men of Britain. Lord Kitchener, 
who organised the great Volunteer Army of 19 14- 
15, accomplished a work that will have high place 
in the annals of war. Fortunately, his task was, 
for the most part, already accomplished when he 
was drowned in a British man-of-war while on his 
way to Russia in 19 16. Lord French, who com- 
manded the old British Army in France for the 
first year and a half of the war, and is now Viceroy 
of Ireland, enhanced a military reputation which 
he won in South Africa in 1899-1900-1901. Sir 
Douglas Haig, the present British Commander-in- 
Chief in France, is a fine specimen of the modern 
British soldier and, as he has only recently proved, 
a strategist of no mean calibre. Marshal Foch, 
our great French Generalissimo, thinks very highly 
of Haig. 

In Admiral Beatty the British Navy has a Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the bulldog temperament that 
the hour calls for. When he got his teeth into the 
German Fleet at Jutland in May, 19 16, he never 
let go until the Germans, having had their fill of 
the fray, scampered back to their ports, where 
they've been laid up for repairs ever since. Some 
people said Beatty was too eager on that occasion 
— took too many risks. Well, he fought in accord- 
ance with the British Navy's tradition, which is to 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 95 

pound Hell out of the enemy whenever the chance 
is given, and to keep on pounding as long as you 
can. Admiral Beatty is only 47 years old. He is 
married to a charming American lady, the daugh- 
ter of the late Marshall Field, of Chicago. 

The naval service is rightly a service in which 
young blood predominates. In Sir Eric Geddes, 
First Lord of the Admiralty — or what we would 
call Secretary of the Navy — Britain has another 
man after our own heart, for he is not only youth- 
ful (42), but entirely self-made. He began life 
as a railway porter, and learned the railway busi- 
ness — which is his occupation in civil life — in our 
Southern States, where he spent several years lum- 
bering and working for the B. & O. Geddes visited 
the U.S.A. this autumn to get acquainted with 
Secretary Daniels and our home Naval estab- 
lishment. 

Winston Churchill, who is now responsible for 
the colossal work of the Ministry of Munitions, is 
half-American, his mother having been a Miss 
Jennie Jerome, of New York. He, too, enjoys the 
advantage of youthful energy, being just 44. 
There is also a North American touch about Bonar 
Law, who is Lloyd George's right-hand man in 
the conduct of the war, and is now in charge of 
Treasury and financial matters as Chancellor of 
the Exchequer. Law was born in Canada — in 
New Brunswick. Lord Beaverbrook, the hustling 
young British Minister of Information (aged 39) , 



96 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

who has organised hospitality in Britain for the 
American forces on so splendid a scale, is also a 
Canadian and was born in the same town as Bonar 
Law. That extraordinarily virile Englishman, 
Viscount Northcliffe, who conducts British prop- 
aganda in Enemy Countries and is Germany's best- 
hated Britisher, is well known in the U.S.A., 
which he admires intensely and knows more in- 
timately, probably, than any living Britisher. Lord 
NorthcHffe, whose newspapers rendered historic 
service in firing his country and its Governments 
with Get-On-with-the-War "pep," was Britain's 
Special Commissioner to the United States in 
19 17. Another prominent member of Lloyd 
George's Administration is Sir Albert Stanley, 
President of the Board of Trade (the Govern- 
ment's business department, which controls rail- 
ways, mines, shipping and all industrial affairs). 
He, too, may be described as "part Yank," as his 
entire business training, in electric transportation 
affairs, was gained in the U.S.A. He keeps up 
the youthful tradition of Britain's War Govern- 
ment, for he is only 43, So does the brilliant young 
Attorney-General, Sir Frederick E. Smith, who 
toured the United States in 19 18. Smith is 46. 

No list of the Big Men of the war era would be 
complete without the name of Lord Reading, Brit- 
ish Ambassador to the United States. Earl Read- 
ing, to give him his full title, is undoubtedly one 
of the most remarkable Englishmen alive. He is 



HOW BRITISHERS ARE GOVERNED 97 

a lawyer by profession, and when he was In private 
life and practised under his own name of Rufus 
Isaacs, he was the most skilful man at the Bar — 
the kind that litigants always preferred to have for 
them rather than against them. Early in the war 
he was Attorney-General and then became Lord 
Chief Justice, which is the blue ribbon of the legal 
profession in this country. The Government sent 
Lord Reading to the United States on several im- 
portant war missions, principally in connection 
with finance, and he so endeared himself to the 
American people that he was the logical man for 
the Ambassadorship when it became vacant in 
19 1 8. No man has done more during the war to 
enable Britishers and Americans to get together. 

The working classes of Great Britain have to- 
day the largest share in the Government that La- 
bour in any country ever possessed. George N. 
Barnes (a mechanic by trade) is a member of the 
War Cabinet. George H. Roberts, a printer, is 
Minister of Labour. J. R. Clyncs, a cotton oper- 
ative, is Food Minister. John Hodge, who began 
life as an iron puddler, is Minister of Pensions. 
William Brace, a coal miner, is Under-Secretary 
for Home Affairs and one of the most eloquent 
orators in England besides. 

And, before I forget it, the Britishers are hence- 
forth to be governed, in part, by their women. Six 
millions of them — provided they're willing to 'fess 



98 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

up that they're 30 years old — will vote In future. 
Their great work in the war won for the women 
the right to a hand in the steering of the British 
ship of State. 



CHAPTER VTII 

THE BULLDOG BREED 

There is one thing about the Britisher that the 
Germans cannot understand. He never knows 
when he is licked. That is why men of the British 
race have come to be known as "the bulldog 
breed." They had that reputation long before 
this war, but have clinched their title to it a thou- 
sandfold during the past four years. Indeed, they 
would have deserved It on their record of the 
Spring and Summer of 191 8 alone. Who would 
have dared to imagine that the British Army that 
was battered back through the Somme valley in 
March and April would so fully recover Its punch 
by September.,that it would be smashing the "Hln- 
denburg Line" at will? Tommy Atkins has done 
what Jim Jeffries couldn't do. He "came back." 
One of Napoleon's marshals said that the right 
kind of an army was the army that is most dan- 
gerous when the enemy thinks it is broken. That 
is precisely what the British Army made of Itself, 
after passing through the bitter waters of defeat 
for four weary, disheartening years. It's the bull- 
dog way. 

99 



100 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

We Yanks have for the most part formea our 
ideas of the Britisher from the American stage 
Englishman. I used to think that all Britishers were 
Cissy-like Lords with monocles, checked trousers, 
chesty manners, and a haw-haw attitude toward 
their humbler fellow-creatures such as mere Amer- 
icans. I imagine that a good many of you may have 
been under the impression that nobody counts in the 
British Army unless he is of blue blood, with 
Dukes and Duchesses for his relations, and a wad 
of money in the bank. Also, I suppose, you have 
pictured to yourselves a British Army bossed and 
run by high and mighty Englishmen lording it over 
their menial subordinates. Well, I can clear your 
minds up about that. I have been at the British 
front twice during the war. My lasting impression 
on both occasions was of the good-fellowship exist- 
ing between officers and men. There are, of course, 
"class distinctions" in Britain — just as there are 
in the United States, though we don't like to admit 
it. But these distinctions are levelled on the battle- 
field. There a man is just a man. What counts 
is what he is, not what his father is or his grand- 
father was. He has the same chance to make good 
that a Duke's son has. You'll know the spirit I'm 
trying to describe when I tell you that a Captain 
(Pollock of the East Yorks, son of a Knight who 
is a rich lawyer) was killed the other day while 
saving his soldier servant. '' 

Let me give you some more samples of what I 




AMBASSADOR AKD MRS. PAGE WITH AMERICAN BLtTEJACKETS AT "EAGLE HUT/ 
LONDON^ ON APRIL 6, 1918, THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ENTRY OF THE 
UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR. 




'the STUFF TO GIVF; ^EM" (AMERICAN GUNNERS AT CHATEAU-THIERRY) 



THE BULLDOG BREED 101 

mean. When the war broke out 400,000 coal 
miners volunteered from England, Scotland and 
Wales. One of them was a man named Godfrey 
Jones, who began life as a pit-boy at the Ebbw 
Vale colliery in Wales. Joining as a private in 
September, 19 14, Jones was speedily promoted 
corporal, then sergeant-major, and finally won his 
lieutenancy. On the Salonica front (in Greece) 
he conducted himself with such gallantry that he 
was promoted captain, won the Distinguished Serv- 
ice Order, and was later given the rank of lieu- 
tenant-colonel. Now the miner of 19 14 has been 
recommended for a Brigadier-Generalship ! Jones 
is only 36 years old. 

Take the case of John Ward. Ward by trade 
Is what they call In England a navvy — about the 
most humble class of working-man, the kind who 
digs sewers and that sort of thing. He was a 
Labour representative in Parliament when the war 
began. He went out among his fellow-navvies, 
raised five battalions of volunteers, and became 
their Colonel. His lads were In a torpedoed trans- 
port, on their way to one of Britain's far-off battle- 
fields, and faced danger and imminent drowning 
for hours before relief came up. Ward's navvy- 
warriors spent their time singing "Rule, Britannia" 
and "Are we Downhearted? NO!" 

In August, 19 14, a young man named James W. 
Watkins, son of a stationmaster, was a ticket- 
seller on the Midland Railway. Having mean- 



102 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

time won the Military Cross and the Distinguished 
Service Order, Watkins is to-day a Lieutenant- 
Colonel in the Lancashire Fusiliers — one of the 
characteristically democratic romances of the war. 

An equally remarkable career is that of J. P. 
Pitts, of the King's Liverpool Regiment. A few 
years ago he was a band-boy in the Bedfordshire 
Regiment, of humble origin, without pull of any 
kind, with nothing in his favour except the bulldog 
spirit. Pitts, who was at Mons, won the Military 
Cross, and is to-day, at 25, a Lieutenant-Colonel. 

Major Charles Clark, of the Royal Field Artil- 
lery, who was killed in action in April, 19 18, was 
a farm-hand before the war. Four cotton-mill 
lads who left work in 19 14 and 19 15 to join the 
Army have won commissions in the field. An able 
seaman named Robert William Fox, of the Royal 
Naval Division, has become a Second Lieutenant. 
There have, of course, been thousands of cases of 
men of the humblest origin who have been given 
commissions after serving in the ranks. Lads who 
were office-boys in 19 14 are Lieutenants now. 

One of the most amazing proofs of the demo- 
cratic atmosphere of the Army is Major-General 
John Monash, the Commander of the superb 
Australian Army Corps in France. He is a typical 
illustration of the fact that neither birth, creed, 
nor position in life cuts any ice whatever as far as 
British military career is concerned. When the 
war broke out, Monash, who is a Jew, was a civil 



THE BULLDOG BREED 103 

engineer in Melbourne. To-day he is Commander- 
in-Chief of one of the finest armies the world has 
ever seen. Perhaps I might mention in passing 
that Lord Reading, British Ambassador at Wash- 
ington, is also a Jew and Lord Chief Justice of 
England besides. Jews are often members of the 
British Cabinet. 

The Royal Air Force of Britain — the great 
"R.A.F.," which is doing as much to win the war, 
I suppose, as any other single branch — overflows 
with examples of young fellows who have come to 
the top from humble origins. The British air 
champion, when he was killed in an accident this 
Summer, was James Byford McCudden, a young- 
ster of 23. Before the war McCudden was an 
air-mechanic. He became a pilot — the most expert 
that the Army produced — and when he met his 
fate he was a Major, with a record of 54 Huns 
brought down. One of his last feats was to lay 
low the German air crack. Flight Lieutenant Voss. 

No less famous than McCudden was Captain 
Albert Ball, a Nottingham boy who was 16 years 
old when war broke out and barely 20 when he 
was killed in action. He had brought down 42 
Germans in air flights. The Captain's brother, 
also a flying-man of rare courage and skill, is a 
prisoner in Germany. 

I have given you a few examples, at random 
from among many, of how the so-called common 
people of Britain have done their bit and won 



104 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

through to high rank on merit. Don't think that 
it is only the lower and middle classes of Britishers 
who have achieved Death and Glory. I want 
particularly to rid your mind of such a notion, 
for it is one of the lies that Germany has spread 
abroad with persistent malevolence. (No class of 
Britisher has done more nobly in the war than the 
highest class of British society. The first man to 
win the Victoria Cross was Captain Francis Gren- 
fell, of the 9th Lancers — a scion of one of Eng- 
land's most aristocratic houses. Grenfell was one 
of the "Old Contemptibles," the Httle British 
Army that held up the German plunge through 
Belgium in the first three weeks of the war. His 
V.C. was granted for helping to save the guns of 
a Royal Field Artillery battery. Afterwards Gren- 
fell and his brother were killed in action. 

Ten Peers — heads of great noble families — 
have fallen fighting, including four Earls and six 
Barons, all members of the House of Lords. In 
addition to Peers who have lost their lives on the 
field of battle, sixty heirs to peerages have made 
the Great Sacrifice. Through their deaths twelve 
peerages have become extinct, as there were no 
heirs to the titles they held. Thus came to an 
end, for instance, the Marquisate of Lincolnshire, 
the Earldom of St. Aldwyn, and the Viscounty of 
Buxton. 

Many of the foremost families of the country 
have lost sons. Mr. Asquith, while Prime Min- 



THE BULLDOG BREED 105 

Ister, had to mourn the death of his heir, Raymond 
Asquith, a lawyer of talent and fine promise. Mr. 
Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has lost 
one son killed, another is a prisoner in the enemy's 
hands. The Hon. Neil Primrose, youngest son 
of the Earl of Rosebery, a former Prime Minister, 
fell in this year's fighting in Palestine alongside 
another scion of the aristocracy. Major Evelyn 
Rothschild, of the celebrated banking family. Two 
grandsons of the famous Victorian statesman, 
William E. Gladstone, met heroes' deaths. The 
two elder sons of Lord Rothermere have fallen. 
The Earl of Denbigh has lost two sons, one at sea 
and one in France. Any number of British fam- 
ilies have lost two members. Many have given 
three, and there are several cases of four boys 
belonging to the same family who have "gone 
West." All were sacrificed in the spirit in which 
the Widow Bixby of Massachusetts gave her five 
sons for the Union in our Civil War — the mother 
to whom our sainted Lincoln wrote that famous 
and beautiful letter, acclaiming "the solemn pride 
that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice 
upon the altar of freedom." 

No reference to the bulldog breed can be com- 
plete without a passing tribute to the mothers, 
wives, daughters, sisters and sweethearts of Brit- 
ain. How they face, dry-eyed, year after year, 
the losses of their men is one of the marvels of 
Britain's great era. I suppose it is due to that 



106 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

"reserve" and poise on which the British race so 
prides itself. Whatever it is that enables British 
women to stand the strain of war as they do, it is 
glorious. They are setting our mothers and wives, 
our sisters and sweethearts, a great and inspiring 
example. 

How can I begin to tell in deserving terms of 
the countless acts of bravery which the boys and 
men of the bulldog breed have performed? The 
highest British distinction for gallantry before the 
foe is the Victoria Cross — "For Valour." It was 
founded by and named after Queen Victoria in 
1856. It is a Maltese Cross of metal made from 
Russian cannon taken during the Crimean War at 
Sebastopol. When awarded to soldiers, the V.C. 
has a crimson ribbon; when given to sailors, it has 
a dark blue ribbon. In the four years up to Octo- 
ber, 191 8, nearly 500 Victoria Crosses had been 
awarded. They do not even remotely begin, of 
course, to exhaust the deeds of unflinching courage 
that the men of the British Army and Navy have 
to their immortal credit. The thousands who re- 
ceived the Military Cross, the Distinguished Serv- 
ice Order, or medals of various grades, were just 
as heroic, just as ready to face danger and death, 
as the gallant 500 who won the Victoria Cross. 

The Victoria Cross is a thoroughly democratic 
institution. The lowest man in the ranks or the 
ship can aspire to it. An Irish hod-carrier has 
just as much chance to win it as an English Duke's 



THE BULLDOG BREED 107 

son. I've been skimming over the V.C. roll of 
honour, and my eye catches names like Boyle, Ho- 
gan, McFadzean, O'Sullivan, O'Meara, and 
O'Leary. Several Jews have been awarded the 
prized badge of British courage. Even the fact 
that a man has "done time" does not bar him from 
a V.C, if he deserves it. One of the jRnest V.C. 
deeds was accomplished by an ex-convict, who was 
serving in the trenches alongside his former prison 
guards. By far the largest number of men in the 
proud list are (or were — ^for many have been 
killed since they won the honour or were awarded 
it after death) privates. All branches — infantry, 
artillery, cavalry, tanks, aircraft, submarines, de- 
stroyers — are represented. Indians, Australians, 
Canadians and New Zealanders are among the 
heroes, for the bulldog breed seems to manifest 
itself regardless of calling, rank, origin or colour. 
Perhaps you would like to know exactly the kind 
of stuff that wins the Victoria Cross. Here are 
a few awards chosen indiscriminately: — •■ 

Acton, Private Abraham, 2nd Batt. Bor- 
der Regiment. For conspicuous bravery at 
Cuinchy on December 21, 19 14, at Rouges 
Bancs, in voluntarily going from his trench 
and rescuing a wounded man who had been 
lying exposed against the enemy's trenches for 
seventy-five hours, and on the same day again 
leaving his trench voluntarily, under heavy 
fire, to bring into cover another wounded 



108 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

man. He and Private James Smith, V.C., 
were under fire for sixty minutes whilst con- 
veying the wounded men into safety. 

Boyle, Lieutenant-Commander Edward C, 
Royal Navy. For most conspicuous bravery, 
In command of submarine E 14, when he 
dived his vessel under the enemy's minefields 
and entered the Sea of Marmora on April 27, 
19 1 5. In spite of great navigational difficul- 
ties from strong currents, of the continual 
neighbourhood of hostile patrols, and of the 
hourly danger of attack from the enemy, he 
continued to operate In the narrow waters 
of the Straits, and succeeded in sinking two 
Turkish gunboats and one large military 
transport. 

Sllton, Lance-Sergeant Ellis Welwood, late 
Canadian Infantry Batt. For most conspicu- 
ous bravery and devotion to duty. During 
the attack In enemy trenches Sergeant SUton's 
company was held up by machine-gun fire 
which inflicted many casualties. Having lo- 
cated the gun, he charged It single-handed, 
killing all the crew. A small enemy party 
advanced down the trench, but he succeeded In 
keeping these off till our men had gained the 
position. In carrying out this gallant act he 
was killed, but his conspicuous valour un- 
doubtedly saved many lives and contributed 
largely to the success of the operation. 

Mariner, Private William, 2nd Batt. 
King's Royal Rifle Corps. During a violent 



THE BULLDOG BREED 109 

thunderstorm on the night of May 22, 19 15, 
he left his trench near Cambrin, and crept out 
through the German wire entanglements till 
he reached the emplacement of a German 
machine-gun which had been damaging our 
parapets and hindering our working parties. 
After climbing on the top of the German 
parapet he threw a bomb in under the roof 
of the gun emplacement and heard some 
groaning and the enemy running away. After 
about a quarter of an hour he heard some of 
them coming back again, and climbed up on 
the other side of the emplacement and threw 
another bomb among them left-handed. He 
then lay still while the Germans opened a 
heavy fire on the wire entanglements behind 
him, and it was only after about an hour that 
he was able to crawl back to his own trench. 

Warneford, Flight Sub-Lieutenant, late 
Royal Flying Corps. For destroying single- 
handed the first German Zeppelin brought to 
grief in the war. Afterwards, although forced 
to descend on enemy soil, he succeeded in fly- 
ing back safely. (Since killed.) 

Maling, Temporary Lieutenant George Al- 
lan, M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps. For 
most conspicuous bravery and devotion to 
duty during the heavy fighting near Fauquis- 
sart on September 25, 191 5. Lieutenant Mal- 
ing worked incessantly with untiring energy 
from 6.15 a.m. on the 25th till 8 a.m. on the 
26th, collecting and treating in the open under 



110 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

heavy shell fire more than 300 men. At about 
II a.m. on the 25th he was flung down and 
temporarily stunned by the bursting of a large 
high-explosive shell, which wounded his only 
assistant and killed several of his patients. A 
second shell soon after covered him and his 
Instruments with debris, but his high courage 
and zeal never failed him, and he continued 
his gallant work single-handed. 

Addison, Rev. W. R. F., Temporary Chap- 
lain to the Forces, 4th CL, Army Chaplains' 
Department. He carried a wounded man to 
the cover of a trench, and assisted several 
others to the same cover, after binding up 
their wounds under heavy rifle and machine- 
gun fire. In addition to these unaided efforts, 
by his splendid example and utter disre- 
gard of personal danger, he encouraged the 
stretcher-bearers to go forward under heavy 
fire and collect the wounded. 

Bingham, Comr. the Hon. Edward S. B. 
'(Prisoner of War in Germany) . For the ex- 
tremely gallant way in which he led his divi- 
sion in their attack, first on enemy destroyers 
and then on their battle-cruisers. He finally 
sighted the enemy battle-fleet, and, followed 
by the one remaining destroyer of his division 
(Nicator) , with dauntless courage he closed 
to within 3,000 yards of the enemy in order 
to attain a favourable position for firing his 
torpedoes. While making this attack Nestor 
and Nicator were under concentrated fire of 



THE BULLDOG BREED 111 

the secondary batteries of the High Sea Fleet. 
Nestor was subsequently sunk. 

Laidlaw, Piper Daniel, 7th King's Own 
Scottish Borderers. For most conspicuous 
bravery prior to an assault on German 
trenches near Loos and Hill 70 on September 
25, 19 15. During the worst of the bombard- 
ment, when the attack was about to com- 
mence, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his com- 
pany was somewhat shaken from the effects 
of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard 
of danger mounted the parapet, marched up 
and down, and played his company out of 
the trench. The effect of his splendid ex- 
ample was immediate and the company 
dashed out to the assault. Piper Laidlaw con- 
tinued playing his pipes till he was wounded. 

Frickleton, Lance-Corporal Samuel, New 
Zealand Infantry. For most conspicuous brav- 
ery and determination when with attacking 
troops, which came under heavy fire and were 
checked. Although slightly wounded. Cor- 
poral Frickleton dashed forward at the head 
of his section, pushed into our barrage, and 
personally destroyed with bombs an enemy 
machine-gun and crew which was causing 
heavy casualties. He then attacked a second 
gun, killing the whole of the crew of twelve. 
By the destruction of these two guns he un- 
doubtedly saved his own and other units from 
very severe casualties, and his magnificent 
courage and gallantry ensured the capture of 



112 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

the objective. During the consolidation of 
the position he received a second severe 
wound. He set throughout a great example 
of heroism. 

McFadzean, Private W. F., late Royal 
Irish Rifles. While in a concentration trench 
and opening a box of bombs for distribution 
prior to an attack, the box slipped down into 
the trench, which was crowded with men, and 
two of the safety pins fell out. Private 
McFadzean, instantly realising the danger to 
his comrades, with heroic courage threw him- 
self on the top of the bombs. The bombs ex- 
ploded, blowing him to pieces, but only one 
other man was injured. He well knew his 
danger, being himself a bomber, but without 
a moment's hesitation he gave his life for his 
comrades. 

Robinson, Lieutenant William Leef e, Wor- 
cester Regiment and Royal Flying Corps. For 
most conspicuous bravery. He attacked an 
enemy airship trying to bomb London under 
circumstances of great difficulty and danger, 
and sent it crashing to the ground as a flam- 
ing wreck. He had been in the air for more 
than two hours, and had previously attacked 
another airship during his flight. 

Jackson, Private W., Australian Infantry. 
On the return from a successful raid several 
members of the raiding party were seriously 
wounded in "No Man's Land" by shell fire. 
Private Jackson got back safely, and, after 



THE BULLDOG BREED 113 

handing over a prisoner whom he had 
brought in, immediately went out again under 
very heavy shell fire and assisted in bringing 
in a wounded man. He then went out again, 
and with a sergeant was bringing in another 
wounded man, when his arm was blown off 
by a shell and the sergeant was rendered 
unconscious. 

For gallantry and devotion to duty in the second 
blocking operation in Ostend Harbour on May 
9-10, when the old warship Vindictive was sunk 
In the harbour, the following awards of the Vic- 
toria Cross were announced: — 

Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Heneage 
Drummond, R.N.V.R. Volunteered for res- 
cue work In command of MX. 254. Although 
severely wounded in three places, he re- 
mained on the bridge and navigated his ves- 
sel, seriously damaged by shell fire, alongside 
Vindictive and took off two officers and 38 
men, some of whom were killed and many 
wounded while embarking. He backed his 
vessels out clear of the piers before sinking 
exhausted from his wounds. 

Licut.-Commandcr Roland Bourke, 
D.S.O., R.N.V.R. After M.L. 254 had 
backed out of the harbour he, in command of 
M.L. 276, made a further search of Vindic- 
tive, but finding no one, withdrew. Hearing 
cries in the water, he again entered the bar- 



114 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

bour, and after a prolonged search found 
Lieut. Sir John Alleyne and two men, all 
badly wounded, clinging to an upended skiff, 
and rescued them. All the time the motor- 
launch was under heavy fire at close range, 
being hit in 55 places. 

Lieut. Victor A. C. Crutchley, D.S.C., R.N. 
He was in Brilliant in the unsuccessful at- 
tempt to block Ostend on April 22-23 ^^'^ ^t 
once volunteered for the second effort. He 
was I St Lieutenant in Vindictive, and when 
his commanding officer was killed and the sec- 
ond in command severely wounded, he took 
command. He did not leave Vindictive until 
he had made a thorough search with an elec- 
tric torch for survivors under heavy fire. He 
took command of M.L. 254 when Lieutenant 
Drummond sank exhausted from his wounds. 
Only by dint of baling with buckets did Lieut. 
Crutchley and the unwounded keep the launch 
afloat until picked up. 

The great stunts that won these sixteen V.C.'s 
are typical of the bulldog spirit. The other 480 
odd differ from them only in detail. All were 
deeds of mighty valour. But they will afford you 
a graphic idea, I hope, of the stuff that the fighting 
Britisher is made of. 

Perhaps the remarkable thing about these out- 
standing feats of British heroism is that in the 
overwhelming majority of cases they were per- 
formed by the most ordinary type of fellow, dis- 



THE BULLDOG BREED 115 

tinguished in no way, as far as anybody ever knew, 
for courage or nerve. And the thing that marks 
all V.C. men is their invincible modesty. "Cut It 
out," they say, when you ask them to tell you what 
they did to win a place among Britannia's im- 
mortals. 

^ ^ ij: ^ ^ 

The war has not produced many great poems. A 
sonnet written by an Englishman, Major Maurice 
Baring, Independent Air Force, in honour of his 
friend and comrade, the Hon. Julian Grenfell, 
himself a poet and who followed his V.C. cousin 
Francis to a hero's death in France, is the best I 
have seen. It sings of the bulldog breed: 

"Because of you we will be glad and gay, 
Remembering you, we will be brave and strong, 
And hail the advent of each dangerous day 
And meet the last adventure with a song. 
And as you proudly gave your jewelled gift, 
We'll give our lesser offering with a smile, 
Nor falter on that path where, all too swift, 
You led the way and leapt the golden stile. 
Whether new paths, new heights to climb you find, 
Or gallop through the unfooted asphodel. 
We know you know we shall not lag behind 
Nor halt to waste a moment on a fear. 
And you will speed us onward with a cheer 
And wave beyond the stars that all is well." ^ 

* [Reproduced with the author's permission.] 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REAL BRITISHER 

The preceding pages of this booklet have been 
devoted In large part to an account of what the 
Britishers have accomplished during the war. I 
would like to wind up with a heart-to-heart talk 
on the subject of the Britisher as he really is. 

To begin with, he is not at all what he seems to 
be on first acquaintance, namely, a chilly proposi- 
tion. Like a foreign language, he requires to be 
studied, and studied carefully. I've been studying 
him for nearly twenty years and I'm just commenc- 
ing to understand him. He is dawning on me for 
what he is — a regular fellow, a white man, and 
one of our kind. It won't take you twenty years 
to know him. The war has made a lot of changes 
in him and he thaws faster than he used to. 

The Britishers and the Americans belong to the 
same English-speaking race, even though we don't 
say "raw-ther" when we mean rather. Both of us 
are Democratic to the core, too. That's why we're 
on the same side in this war. Sure. But other- 
wise most of our traits, habits, Impulses and or- 
dinary views about things are as different as day 

Il6 



THE REAL BRITISHER 117 

from night. That Is not quite correct. They only 
seem different, for it is my experience that when 
Britishers and Yanks get together and thrash 
things out, they find that their notions about life 
aren't as far apart as they appeared to be. We 
discover that we only look at life through spec- 
tacles of different colours. Our tastes and Ideals 
are very similar. All we do Is to gratify the 
tastes and pursue the ideals In our own ways. If 
a Britisher steps on you by mistake, he says 
"Sorry." A Yank says "Beg your pardon." What 
each means Is that he wishes he hadn't done It. 
They put It differently : that's all. When you took 
your girl out for the last time before leaving the 
U.S.A., she probably told you that she had had a 
"bully" evening. The first girl you took out In 
England, I'll bet, assured you that you had given 
her a "ripping" time. But your Yank girl and 
your British girl meant precisely the same thing. 
The Britishers' English differs from Yank Eng- 
lish all along the line, but that doesn't signify that 
It Is bad English. After all, the language belongs 
to them. They saw It first. They do with It what 
they please ; and we do to It what we please. Take 
their railroad lingo. To begin with, "there ain't 
no such animal" as a "railroad" In this country. 
They've only got "railways." They "shunt" their 
trains. We "sidetrack" ours. By a "depot" the 
Britisher means a place where stuff Is stored. By 
"depot" we mean the place we go to or come from 



118 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

when travelling by rail. Britishers "book places.'' 
If they talked our language, they'd "reserve ac- 
commodations." And they call conductors and 
brakesmen "guards." 

So it is with the thousand and one things in which 
our respective characteristics differ. Americans, 
for instance, are hail-fellow-well-met sort of peo- 
ple. When we slap a man on the back as a welcome, 
we mean it. We're mighty glad to see him. We 
let him know it by the effusiveness of our greeting, 
by the warmth of our hand-clasp — and usually by 
a slap on the back. These being our emotions,, 
we display them. We don't hide them away as 
if we were ashamed of them. It's our way. The 
Britisher's way is different. He seldom slaps you 
on the back. If he is meeting you for the first 
time, he never does. His welcome is polite, but 
never effusive. In the grip of his hand there is 
courtesy rather than cordiality. You do not get 
the glad hand from a Britisher till he is sure that 
you deserve it. Once you've proved that you have 
a right to his friendship, you get it in full measure. 

I often wonder what it is that makes the Brit- 
isher act like an iceberg. He is not an iceberg, 
but he likes to make you think he is. You Yanks 
in khaki are talked to, I guess, in British railway 
trains by natives who happen to be your fellow- 
passengers. But American civilians like myself 
might travel the whole length of the British Isles 
in a train and never have a Britisher open his head 



THE REAL BRITISHER 119 

to us except to inquire, politely, if we object to his 
keeping the window open. I can forgive a Brit- 
isher anything, by the way, except his ungovern- 
able passion for open windows in a railway-car, 
even though the temperature outside be Arctic. I 
like fresh air, all right, but I go outdoors when I 
want it. Why shouldn't people talk to one another 
in a train? Life is short and railroad journeys are 
long. Not all Britishers act like icebergs, but I 
have come to the conclusion that ninety-nine out 
of a hundred spend their lives trying to be as 
Polar as possible. A celebrated English General 
and Colonial administrator told me the other day 
that he belongs to a London club in which he hasn't 
been spoken to for twenty-five years. He talked 
to a fellow-member once and the man nearly died 
of apoplexy. A famous Irishman named Daniel 
O'Connell said that the average Englishman has 
all the qualities of a poker except its occasional 
warmth. 

He was right. The average Englishman tries 
to keep himself as stiff as a poker. He hates un- 
bending. He was taught at school that it was not 
"good form" to appear to be emotional. I have a 
Yank kid of my own at a typical English boarding- 
school for boys of from nine to fourteen years of 
age. I can see in him, from term to term, the 
exact effect of the British system of suppressing 
emotions. When parents visit their boys at an 
English boarding-school, the boys object to being 



120 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

kissed or embraced in sight of their comrades. 
They are taught that such exhibitions of natural 
effusiveness are "unmanly" and more fit for little 
girls than for English lads who are growing into 
young gentlemen. The boys don't object to being 
made a fuss of when they're alone with their 
parents, but they don't want any of the sob-stuff 
in public. 

Thus from his tenderest years the Britisher is 
brought up to look upon "reserve"and "poise" as 
the finest of human qualities. The effect of this 
system is to make the average Britisher shy. When 
my kid started in at Eastbourne he was a typical 
young American holy terror. Three years of 
Hold-Yourself-In training turned him from an un- 
tamed cub into a sucking-dove. He is frightfully 
shy. He faces strangers almost in embarrassment. 
He never rushes up and at them as if he were 
really glad to see them. He is polite, all right, 
but always "reserved." He's been taught to be. 
It's the English way. 

If you will remember this, you will be on the 
right road to understanding the British tempera- 
ment. The Britisher's apparent coldness, which 
Americans so often mistake for rudeness, is noth- 
ing in the world but inborn and inculcated shy- 
ness. By that I mean that he has not only in- 
herited "reserve" from his father before him, but 
in order that he should grow up to be the right 
kind of a Britisher he has "reserve" taught to him 



THE REAL BRITISHER 121 

when he goes to school. He learns there that he 
must never wear his heart on his sleeve. It's 
one of the explanations of the phenomenal cool- 
headedness with which the Britishers have weath- 
ered the terrific ordeal of the war. 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. How 
has the system on which Young Britain Is raised 
turned out In practice? Well, I think the answer 
to that can be found in this book. Britain has 
made good. Her system of rearing her manhood 
has made good. I have been talking about the 
"reserve" and "poise" of British boys. The same 
thing applies to British girls. They have made 
good In this war too. The very lads, the very 
girls, who were brought up on the non-emotional 
scheme of education — the "Public School" youth 
of both sexes, the boys from Eton, Harrow and 
Winchester, the girls from Cheltenham, Roedean 
and Wycombe — are the ones who have "carried 
on" In the field and at home. The British Army 
to-day Is officered to a large extent by "men" who 
were boys In 19 14, attending either the "public 
schools" (what we call "prep." schools) or the 
universities. Oxford and Cambridge, the Yale and 
Harvard of England, have been practically de- 
serted for four years. Their famous old halls and 
dormitories are Officers' Training Corps head- 
quarters now, and have been ever since the war 
began. Hundreds of fellows who went out from 
them as undergraduates have meantime won glory 



122 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

as competent, gallant officers. Hundreds of them, 
too, as you will see if you ever visit Oxford or 
Cambridge and look at the Rolls of Honour on 
the doors of the college chapels, have laid down 
their young lives in Liberty's cause. These were 
the boys who were brought up to be shy and re- 
served and always to keep their poise — who didn't 
like to be babied by their fathers and mothers 
when other kids were looking, who were trained 
not to be effusive when introduced to strangers, 
who grew up trying to look and act as much like 
icebergs as their fathers did. Yet in the Great 
Test they were not found wanting. Nor were the 
girls who In 19 14 were at boarding-school, "flap- 
pers," as their sort Is called, because they wear 
their hair "flapping" up and down their backs. 
These girls, many of whom four years ago lived 
only for chocolate creams and sweethearts and 
novels, are "W.A.A.C.'s" [Women's Army Auxi- 
liary Corps], or "V.A.D.'s" [Voluntary Aid De- 
tachment] to-day, or land girls, or chauffeurs, or 
hard at work in one of the other countless war 
occupations In which the supposedly weaker sex is 
distinguishing Itself In all belligerent countries. 
These young Britishers — boys and girls — are the 
backbone of their country in this critical hour. 
You see, it didn't harm them at all to be brought 
up differently from us. They have turned out to 
be real men and women just the same. 

Americans who are In England for the first time 



THE REAL BRITISHER 123 

find everything old-fashioned — ^the dinky rail- 
way trains, the low, grey old buildings in the big 
cities, the snail-like elevators, the people's love for 
doing things in the way their grandfathers did 
them and because their grandfathers did them. 
We don't find enough hustle in the air. The 
Britishers don't seem to know how to get a move 
on. Now, the fact is that there is nearly as much 
hustle to the square inch in these islands as there 
is in the United States, only the Britisher doesn't 
make such a fuss about it. His railway trains do 
look dinky alongside of ours, but you will probably 
be surprised to know that some of the fastest pas- 
senger trains in the world (in ordinary time) 
are the expresses which cover the long-distance 
stretches in this country, like the London-Plymouth 
line, a run of something like 225 miles which be- 
fore the war used to be done without a stop. The 
Britisher loves old things^ — ^buildings, customs, 
habits, traditions, precedents. I heard a man say 
once that an Englishman would only adopt a new 
idea on condition that it didn't look new. Being 
only 142 years old as a nation, we're too young 
to have acquired veneration for the antique. When 
we have 1,000 years and more of national history 
back of us, we'll not want to pull down beautiful 
old churches that, to the average Yank's way of 
thinking, obstruct traffic — such as a pair of musty 
piles squatting squarely in the middle of London's 
busy Strand. We'll love them, as the Britisher 



IM EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

loves them, because they are old. At present we're 
in the sky-scraper phase of our existence, in the 
age when newness, bigness, quickness, seem to us 
the important things of life. We will outgrow 
that phase. 

An Englishman's home is his castle — that's one 
of the most famous of British sayings. To know 
the real Britisher he has to be seen in his home. 
The homes of Britain are thrown wide open to 
the American soldier and sailor, and I hope each 
and every one of you may have the opportunity of 
enjoying British private hospitality. You will find 
it to be the real thing. There will be no chilly 
deals or "reserve" within the four walls in which 
you will be asked to make yourself perfectly at 
home. It will not make any difference whether the 
home you're invited to is a workman's cottage or 
a Ducal establishment. The Britisher leaves all 
"side" outside when he takes you inside. You will 
discover very promptly that his "poise" is really 
not poise at all, but pose. He turns out to be a 
human being — probably to your surprise, certainly 
to your pleasure and complete satisfaction On one 
or two occasions I have been the guest of a real, 
live English Duke — one of the noblest in the 
realm. He was as Dukish as I expected him to be 
— till we reached his home, which was a real castle. 
Then he suddenly transformed himself into a full- 
blooded man and into one of Nature's gentlemen. 
He grabbed my suit-case out of my hand, as soon 



THE REAL BRITISHER 125 

as we crossed the threshold, and personally es- 
corted me to my bedroom. Half an hour later he 
knocked at the door (it was late at night) and 
Inquired: "Anything you want before you go 
to sleep?" I was up against the Britisher as he 
really is. 

It used to be the fashion In our country to twist 
the British Lion's tail. Every politician after 
votes, or every Fourth of July orator who wanted 
to make a hit, roasted the British. Those days, I 
hope, are gone for ever. It will be for you and 
for me, who have made the acquaintance of the 
real Britain, to see that they never return. I 
firmly believe that the keeping of the world's 
peace, when this war Is over, will be mainly In the 
hands of the English-speaking peoples. We shall 
not need to enter Into a formal "alliance" with the 
British Empire. The alliance that has been sealed 
by the shedding of British and American blood on 
common battlefields Is signed In Ink that will out- 
last all the written alliances that could ever be put 
on paper. 

And if I may Indulge In one parting thought 
before I finish a work that has been for me a 
labour of love, I would ask you to banish from 
your thoughts the notion that America came Into 
the war to "save England." England has saved 
herself. France has saved herself. We are In the 
war to save ourselves. We entered It because 
self-preservation is the first law of Nature. We 



126 EXPLAINING THE BRITISHERS 

are at war with Germany for precisely the same 
reasons that Britain, France and Italy are at war 
with her — because her victory would demolish the 
very foundations on which American life rests. 
We are at war to make the world safe for Democ- 
racy — for our own Democracy as well as for the 
Democracy of the other nations alongside whose 
scarred and veteran legions it is our high privilege 
to fight. 



[THE END 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: IVlagnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: ilt^/ 2001 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




007 628 273 




i ii I 




iiiiiiiliiiilllll 




